Art Campaign: Inspiring Stories of Hearing Loss:
Henry will be 12 years old in August. He has a conductive hearing loss. We battled for years to get him help. We got him into speech and early childhood special ed. He didn’t say his first word until he was about 4 years old. He has had a couple surgeries. Two years ago we decided we had tried enough. This hearing loss is permanent! He has worn hearing aids since then. We are currently working with a Deaf Mentor learning ASL.
Henry loves to swim and dive at the local pool. He plays football, tennis and basketball. He loves video games and playing board games.
What I love about Henry’s story is that we learn that there isn’t a cookie cutter path in the world of hearing loss and deafness. As a parent, it’s really hard to make choices for our children, mainly when those choices can have a life long impact. Henry’s mom sent me a picture of Henry sitting by a river (or a lake), contemplating which inspired me to do this painting, but I wanted to incorporate their choice of embracing Sign Language in their lives in order to support Henry in his journey, so in my painting I added Henry pointing in ASL to a flock of birds flying across the river.
Do you relate toHenry’s Story too?