Page 2 - Success Story Newsletter_Winter 2017

Employment Services Job Coach, Lauren Sheds a
Light on Living Life in Quiet

Lauren pictured here with program participant Jeff, who she assisted in gaining employment.

Have you ever watched two people talking from across the room and wondered what they were saying? Do you ever
guess or make up a story? Well, that is how life is for a hard of hearing or deaf person like myself, each and every day.

When I was born in 1984, hearing tests were not standard or required. As a child growing up, my family became
concerned with my lack of speech and response to commands. At the age of 3, my grandmother called in to a doctor
hosting a TV show to ask for help. The doctor prescribed a small test, bang a pot behind my head when I was not looking.
She banged a pot with one of those infamous wooden spoons we all have nightmares about and sure enough, I did not
react to it. She knew something wasn’t right. A quick visit to the doctor with my mom confirmed her suspicions; I was
diagnosed with moderate to severe hearing loss and got my first pair of hearing aids.

Sure enough, even at the young age of 3, I learned to read lips and gestures. I would watch how those around me move
their mouth and deciphered their gestures. We never identified the cause for my hearing loss but we believe it is genetic.
I learned that I had a relative three generations ago who was also deaf and it is not uncommon for the condition to skip
generations.

My family enrolled me in speech school shortly after the discovery. The child study team recommended I attend Lake
Drive School for the Deaf in Mountain Lakes, NJ. Although the school was 45 minutes from my home, I was enrolled at
the age of five and was introduced to a world that would change my life forever. I learned sign language and it became
a huge part of my everyday life. I made friends with peers who could experience the same struggles and challenges
together; I finally felt like I was not alone!

Bridging Two Worlds

I was fortunate enough to experience the best of both worlds. I speak very well for someone with hearing loss and I was
fluent in sign language. Although I learned sign language, my family never did. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to, but
rather because they didn’t need to. We maintained a verbal household and as frustrating as that was for me at the time, I
appreciate it so much more as an adult as it prepared me for real world challenges in the future.

I remember my Social Security benefits were cut shortly after graduating high school because I was “not deaf enough.”
I was speechless! What do you mean I am not deaf enough? I was born with and live with more than 60% hearing loss!
Rather than fight this and dispute the decision, I used it as motivation to push even harder, to do something with my life

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