S3 E1: Learning How We Hear - with children's author Lindsay Dain

Host Crystal Hand interviews children's author Lindsay Dain about her life and education that lead to her passion for advocating for the Deaf community and helping parents with Deaf children.  In this episode they discuss her new book I'm Getting a Cochlear Implant! Learn About How I Will Hear" and the journey that lead her to changing her career and start writing as well as launching her website "His Little Hands of mine"- a safe space for family and friends to learn and ask questions without judgement.  

Links mentioned in discussion:

Buy the book HERE:

https://amzn.to/3GtPpf1   (Affiliate link)

To request book for library:  

ISBN for Library Request

"I'm Getting a Cochlear Implant! Learn About How I Will Hear!" 979-8-9885896-1-7

Lindsay Dane's Websites:  

• Website: https://hislittlehandsofmine.com/
• Cochlear Implant Website:  https://parentresourcesfordeafchildren.com/

This podcast is produced and owned by Crystal Hand and not associated with any other company, business or government entity.  "The Other Side of Deaf" podcast and associated websites and social media pages represent the opinions of the host and her guests on the show and do not represent or reflect the opinion of any organization the participants are employed or associated with.  The content here is for information purposes only and should not be used for medical or legal purposes.

Transcript

Crystal

Hello, welcome back to The Other Side of Deaf. This is Crystal Hand, your host. After a long hiatus, we are finally back to publishing. It has been a long, tough year for our family.

And for those of you who follow me on social media, you know why I had to take some time off. I have missed working on this podcast, but I am excited to start publishing and engaging with all of you again. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, I encourage you to go back to some of my previous episodes.

I am so proud to have great representation of both hearing and deaf perspectives on this podcast, and I plan to continue to pursue that path. For today, though, i have a very special guest to start our new season.

For anyone who knows me, you know I love books, and I will confess that one of the reasons that my children are so successful is because as a family, we push reading as an essential part of their language development.

So it is my honor to have Lindsay Dane on the show today. Lindsay is a devoted teacher and children's book author and illustrator with a strong passion for sign language and supporting hearing parents of deaf children. She believes in the transformative power of storytelling in education and loves turning her ideas into engaging stories and art. She is also the founder and publisher of the company called His Little Light of Mine and His Little Hands of Mine, a website for anyone that wants a safe space to learn and ask questions for deaf and hard of hearing related issues, including sign language. So Lindsay, let's just get started right away. Let's have you tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get interested in deaf education and what inspired you to get trained as a teacher of the deaf?

Lindsay

So I knew when I wanted to go to college that i wanted to be a teacher. And I had a friend in high school whose mother was hard of hearing and her sister was deaf. And so when I hung out with them, they would teach me some sign language. And when I was in college, I always took a fun class. And so The fun class that I took one summer was ASL 1 and I loved it It was so much fun. And so, of course, I took ASL 2 and then I took every other class that I could take at the community college. And then when I got into my teaching program, I needed a foreign language and I already had one because I had taken sign language. So it worked out. But anyways, I took as much as I could up until my teaching program started and then I stopped.

And I always loved it, but that was it. And so I was a preschool teacher er no, I guess I taught kindergarten first. I was a kindergarten teacher and my roommate graduated and she wanted to go to grad school. And so I was like, okay, I'll go to grad school if you go to grad school. So I started looking into programs about, you know, trying to figure out what it is that I wanted to do. And I loved being a teacher, but I definitely didn't want to be an administrator. And I didn't want to go to school for just education. And so I thought, you know, I really am interested in sign language. Maybe I'll look into deaf education. And as ASL student, I had only learned the capital D deaf side of things. But whenever I was searching for deaf education programs, there was one that came up that was in St. Louis and it was an oral deaf education program. And my experience so far had been that that was very bad and that was wrong. And, you know, there's a lot of passion when it comes to people and their opinions, but it w

It's called Central Institute for the Deaf. And every single one of those children were speaking. It was awesome. They do cochlear implants right there at the hospital.

They have audiologists on staff at the school. They have speech language pathologists on staff. I mean, it was amazing. So I decided that I thought it was just fine I check out the other side. And so I did. and I learned so much stuff. And it's funny because I was super naive about what to expect.

Now I went to school to be a teacher, so I had all education classes. I had never had any kind of anatomy classes. I didn't even understand the kinds of degrees that people were coming in with. So the program had deaf educators and audiologists, and the deaf educators had different backgrounds. So some of them had education backgrounds. Some of them had communication disorder backgrounds. And so I didn't even know what that was. And I never thought you're going to a medical school.

It's grad school. You probably need to understand some medical stuff. I didn't know anything. And so of course there was no basic information. And so I started the school having no understanding of the language that comes with audiology. And so it was a big slap in the face because I didn't know what the word pathology meant. That's a problem, you know. But then in addition, i didn't understand any of like the body systems or they were talking like we were already supposed to know. You know, your ear is also called a pinna. Your eardrum is also called tympanic membrane. You know, like they were using all these words that I was just like, shocked. So anyways, I went through the program. It was amazing. I learned everything that I needed to. I just had a big learning curve. and But what was super special about this program is that they trained teachers of the deaf right next to audiologists. And their goal for the these teachers is to be the bridge between the parents and the doctors. So they wanted us to know

We could help them understand. You know, doctor language is very different from teacher language. And so it was amazing. So I know sign language and I know the oral side, too. And I love it.

Crystal

Well, that's amazing. And I can tell you that as a parent that went through all of that, it is very daunting because a lot of times audiologists and doctors will assume that a parent knows all of those languages as well.

And I didn't know any of it. Like I was like... racked my brain for that eighth grade science biology lesson that i had about how the ear works. And so when they come to parents, and they say, well, your child has sensorial nerve hearing loss.

What does that mean? Like, I had to look everything up, like everything. And so yeah, I don't personally know if there's a lot of schools that do that, but that is very, very helpful if deaf educators do know that. So if any deaf educators are listening and you don't participate in helping parents with that, that's a good thing to do. so having this background with oral education and deaf education, How did that change your view about either side of that argument? Because um for anybody who's listening, if you don't know, there is a lot of animosity about which is better. All of our deaf kids could should talk. Everybody should you know have hearing aids or technology. And then there's the other part that's the deaf community, and they're very much You know, we want our language, our culture of ASL. And you've kind of seen both sides of that and been trained in both of that. So how did your master's in deaf education change your point of view on that?

Lindsay

Well, I imagine I don't have children who are deaf, but I did come in knowing nothing. And so I can imagine having a child and if they tell me, okay, your child can't hear with the limited knowledge that I had, was okay, well then I guess they're gonna use sign language and can they talk? They may not be able to do a B and c you know, cause you don't know. But now that I know so much, I feel like there's just, there's so many options and there's nothing wrong with any of it. What I love is you can look at people who have taken different paths and they're all successful. They're all fine. To me, i see a lot of passion And I see a lot of feelings that I don't have because I haven't experienced some of those things. But for me, i just think it's important to share information. give everybody the information. It's important that you have all of it. And then you make whatever decision it is that you want.

Crystal

 Yeah, so when i would counsel with families, i would tell them that there's no right or wrong answer. And so a lot of times in the deaf community and the people that are surrounding it, we go into what we call our camps of thought. So we're like, deaf education should be in deaf schools or it should be in mainstream schools and we should have ASL or no ASL, cochlear implants, no cochlear implants. And I used to tell families, there's no wrong answer and it's all work. You just have to choose what type of work that you wanna do. And so if you are going to have your child wear technology, then you need to commit to, number one, having them wear that technology. And so teaching them that when your eyes are open, you know, put your hearing aids on. You have to commit to speech and language therapy. You have to commit to really pushing that oral aspect of it. Or you can learn a new language and learn sign language. And so it doesn't matter. It's the same amount of work. It's just what you as a family are willing

Lindsay

I kind of think about it like feeding your child. I remember whenever I had my first child, there was lots of opinions about what type of food to give my baby.

If you feed your child, that's all that matters. Whatever food you choose, whether it's formula or breast milk, feed your baby. You do you. As long as they get fed, that's all that matters. I don't know. I just think it's so important that Everybody just gets all the information you do with what you have, right? So if you can just equip people with as much information, not opinions, information as possible, I think that's best that we can do for families.

Crystal

Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about where you went from there. So you kind of had your life take you a different path. You didn't actually end up teaching deaf children directly, but you ended up as a teacher that had deaf students that were in your school, but not directly your students. What was that like for you? And how did you perceive how mainstream school was for those deaf and hard of hearing children? Well, when I graduated, a lot of people went to jobs.

Lindsay

I went where my husband was and there wasn't any oral deaf ed jobs. And I even tried to work for the health department and try to work with birth through age three, but it's a very small number of people that you'd be serving. So there just wasn't any opportunity for me and So I ended up just teaching general education. But before I even went to get my master's degree, I ended up having a child mainstreamed in my kindergarten classroom. And as a teacher, I was ignorant, which means I didn't know what I didn't know. And so I had a child who had a hearing aid. They told me that she had a hearing aid, that I was supposed to wear this thing that stuck to her hearing aid. And I wore this necklace and it helps her to hear better and you should wear it. And okay, that was it. What was fortunate about this sweet little girl is my students were mostly Spanish speakers. So we were learning English, we were learning Spanish, and I had already taught them a bunch of sign language. So when that child entered our classroom but oftentimes I forgot to turn it on. She didn't advocate for herself because she didn't know. I don't ever remember her telling me, i can't hear that. Or will you turn your microphone on? So it's important that we really educate teachers who are working with these children because they don't know.

Crystal

Yeah, that's so true. So both of my children had FM systems and we would always have it so that the teacher of the deaf would teach them how to use it and why it was important at the beginning of every year. And I quickly learned as a parent that I had to set up a meeting with them about six weeks into school. And I would call another informal IEP meeting and just check to see if they were using it properly and if my child was getting all the accommodations. Because a lot of times what happened was that teachers are overwhelmed. They have oftentimes too many students in their class than they should. And they also have students that have a bunch of different IEPs. So, you know, there's a behavioral student over here and ah an ADHD kid over here. And so oftentimes they don't mean to, but it kind of gets put on the wayside of, oh, I got go deal with this. So I forget to put this on or I forgot to turn it on. um And I would always be like, hey, you know, this is really important. He can't hear without it. And in

And so she is going around and she's one hour with this kid and one hour with this kid and one hour with this kid. And because of that, she does not have the ability to give proper training to all of these teachers because she just, there's only one of her, right? And so with parents, that's where you have to go in and you have to say,

Hey, I know that you have 25 other kids, but this is really important for my kid. And I, as a parent, had to learn how to advocate. And when you have a child that is five years old in kindergarten, they don't have those skills to say, this isn't working. By the way, you can put that in as a IEP goal for your child to have an advocacy goal. And so we often did that. There was an advocacy goal where the teacher of the deaf would sit there and say, what do you do when you can't hear and would actually teach my child to advocate for themselves. They had advocacy goals from kindergarten all the way up until they graduated high school because they always need to advocate for themselves. But most parents don't know that they can ask for that. So that was a great point that a lot of times teachers just don't know what they don't know. But it's amazing that you had that experience and you had that background. And even though you struggled a little bit, like I'm sure that this child ended up doing much better in your 

Lindsay

Hopefully she felt welcome. And i just thought of all the classrooms, mine is the best one because every single one of my kids can say hi, and they can say sit down and please and thank you and sorry. And it wasn't heard She was coming in to a place where we already did that.

Crystal

Yeah, and so often deaf or hard of hearing kids, they feel lonely in that environment because oftentimes that's not the case. And sometimes depending on the school, some of the children are going to be really great about it and they're going to be like, yeah, I want to learn. And then other kids are not going to be as hospitable, I would say. that's the best way to put it. And so that can lead to a lot of social isolation for deaf and hard of hearing kids. So absolutely. So let's talk about what happened next. So you actually had a life altering experience where you ended up not teaching and had to go into speech therapy. So what happened there?

Lindsay

Yes. So it's so weird how I've had all of these different experiences that have kind of put me in a different position than I was before and have given me a different perspective. my voice stopped working. So weird. So when I taught kindergarten years ago, every single beginning of the school year, I would lose my voice. And it's because I went from not talking at all in the summer. Well, not necessarily at all, but then talking constantly as a teacher. So when I taught, whenever I taught kindergarten, I would tell my friends, okay, please stand up, push she in your chair. Please go stand behind the person in front of you. Next person, stand up, push in your chair. I mean, it is constant talking. And so I would lose my voice and it wasn't a big deal. It'd always come back. Well, years later, I had gone back after having my second daughter. And at first I just worked part-time at a preschool. I worked two days a week. And then in the middle of the school year, one of our teachers left. And so they asked me to

I hated it, hated it. But it's important for me to be in that position because I can teach speech. especially as an early educator. I mean, you're teaching sounds and stuff all the time, so it's not really a big deal, but I don't want to be the one being taught that. And so I had to really work on my attitude. But part of my issue, it was just, it just reminded me, you're broken. Don't forget, you're broken. Oh, you get to go back to speech therapy and you're having to hum into the straw and you can't even do that. You're broken. ah Oh, I hated it.

Anyway, I ended up going back down to two days a week My school was awesome and they helped they hired another teacher for me. When COVID happened, my voice came back completely. i was able to sing. It was awesome. So what ended up happening is the doctor told me that I had some kind of trauma with my voice. I made up for it somehow. And when I did that, I spoke wrong. I still speak wrong. I know I'm speaking incorrectly. i can sing correctly. But in order for me to speak correctly, it takes a lot of thought and brain power. And I just got to where this is not fun anymore because I couldn't sing with my students. I was teaching four-year-olds. So we had a clean song and a blind song. And, you know, we, and I read stories to them every day and I couldn't do that anymore. It was like, I can tell you to get in line 10 times or I can read you a story, but I can't do both. And I was getting mad and I got to where I couldn't read to my babies at nighttime. And so we started watching YouTube videos of other people reading stories. And so I went from having this love of teaching to dread of having to go to work. And so I wasn't the best teacher and I couldn't give the kids what they needed. So I finally ended up quitting and it was horrible. 

Crystal 

So when you were going through speech therapy, you just mentioned like you felt like you were broken, that you felt like it was a constant reminder that kind of give you this different view or connection to what deaf and hard of hearing students have to go through as far as going in? So I have personal experience. My daughter hated speech therapy. My son put up with it, but he was always like, yeah, I hate it. But it was always like, well, you have to go. We have to go. We have to go. Even though my daughter used sign language, we always put her in speech therapy so that she would learn how to speak as well.

And I hear from so many deaf and hard of hearing people that they hate speech therapy, that it is like the worst. And so hearing you say as a hearing person, like that, that's the way you felt. Do you feel like that gave you a different insight on what deaf and hard of hearing people go through every day when they're being put into that environment and saying, Hey, you're broken. You don't know how to do this.

Lindsay

Yes. Yes. And the speech therapist that I worked with, she was awesome and she helped me. She really did. But yeah, don't blame them. It was, Oh, I hated it. And then when I couldn't perform the simple tasks that she was asking me to do, it just made me feel stupid. It was helpful, but yeah. Yeah.

I can totally relate. I hated it. Hated it. So I don't know what to do to change that. But if they're feeling the same way, then that really sucks. I'm sorry.

Crystal 

Yeah. And I think that's one of the reasons why deaf communities sometimes push back on it and say, yeah I don't want to do this.

and that's understandable in some aspects, especially if you're fluent in sign. Because if you can communicate in sign, then a lot of deaf and hard of hearing people are like, why do I need to spend so much energy on this? And as we said, it's a personal decision about what you want to do. That is a hard thing when you have a lifetime of it, right? Like my children had speech therapy from the time they were like two. I think my son stopped when he got out of middle school because he was on target for that. But my daughter actually had speech therapy all the way up until her sophomore year in high school. She hated it. And she used to say, Mom, do I still have to do this? Do I still have to do this? do i still have to do And she would admit to me that it was helpful, that she did need help with learning how to pronounce the words, especially since she loves science and she needed help learning how to say science words because those are really long and complicated. But she would tell me like, it is helpful, but I hate doing it. So after this, then you kind of went into a different direction, which ended up being okay. But in the middle of that, you thought about becoming an interpreter. So let's talk about what your experience with that was. okay Well, I had a lot of sign language already from taking the classes years ago.

Lindsay

And I actually wanted to be a sign language teacher, not an interpreter. Because I knew interpreter would require more school and I didn't want to go back to school.

But I had to do something else because I got to where I couldn't talk all the time. ah was not going to be able to be a teacher. That's all I've ever done. I have a bachelor's and master's degree in education. I don't know how to do anything else. And so I thought, OK, well, maybe I can teach sign language. You know, I can still have the teacher schedule, which I was really worried about because I've never had like an eight to five job all the time. I always had my kids in the summer or they came with me to camp. And so I'm like, well, I can do that because then I don't have to talk. i can still teach. i love sign language. It will be fun. So I contacted the community college in my town that had an interpreter program. And in order for me to become a teacher certified to teach sign language, I had to have so many credit hours. And then once you have the credit hours, then you can take the exams and become certified and I would get like a Texas certificate. And so i contacted this program and I said, this is what I want to do. This is my story. What classes do I need to take in order to make this happen?

And I was very excited about it, you know, cause I'm like struggling with my identity at this time. Cause if I'm not a teacher, then who am I And so I thought that that was going to be my solution. And when I called the school, my heart beats fast every time I talk about it. It just, ugh. I called the school and told this lady what I wanted to do. And she said some really hurtful, passionate things to me. And again, I'll reiterate, you don't know what you don't know.

And a lot of times discrimination is because of ignorance. It's not out of mean, cold heartedness. And so she really put me in my place.

And she said, well, you know, you can take this class in this class, but I'm going to let you know right now, if you tell anybody that you're going to be a sign language teacher and you're hearing, just know you're not going to make very many friends.

Nobody is going to like you here. And I thought, what? Uh, Why? and she said, who do you think you are? Why are you gonna take a deaf person's job?

What can a deaf person do, huh? Can they answer the phone? No, ma'am. you know Can they talk to to this person and that person? No, ma'am. I guess not, no.

Well, then why you, a hearing person, are gonna take the very limited amount of jobs that they have? And I was just like, oh, wow, you're so rude. Lindsay, how dare you think of that? Like, why would you do that to a deaf person? And I just thought, know I never thought about that I wasn't really thinking about anybody else I was thinking about myself but I didn't think in thinking about myself was I hurting someone that wasn't my intention and she said well I wouldn't want to take black history from a white person either so why am I going to take sign language from a hearing person and I just I felt I felt mean, like I felt prejudice and I didn't pursue it at all. I never tried again. And that was five years ago. And still, you know, I'm not going to do that.

Crystal

 So let's talk about that a little bit. So I am going to say, because this is my podcast and I can say whatever I want, that everything she said, even if it came from a good place, is wrong. So, and I might get some pushback about that, but the truth of the matter is, is if she was saying the limited amount of jobs that deaf people can have, Here's the thing. If you think that people are limited because they are deaf, then you are part of the problem. The fact of the matter is, is that deaf people with the right accommodations can do everything that a hearing person can do. And if we are saying in society, well, deaf people can only do this amount, then you are prejudiced against deaf people because you're saying they're less than and they are not less than. They are just as smart. and capable as everyone else. And so although she may have had a good argument, if she would have said, you know, let's have a deaf person teach culture and things like that, understood. But the fact of the matter is, is that that whole argument of you're taking jobs away from deaf people, that may be true, but her argument is completely wrong because deaf people can do whatever they want. And unfortunately, I know from personal experience that there are a lot of deaf people who don't believe that.

I'll give you an example. So my daughter is like super into science. She's planning on majoring in um a science field in college. She has taken honors courses and she's like she's really, really smart, right? Both my kids are. And she did an internship this past summer That was with the Department of Environmental Science in our state and it was a deaf program. So she was partnered with other deaf students. a lot of them were from the School for the Deaf here in our state. And she was so excited. She's like, I'm going to learn all this science stuff and I'm going to get to be with deaf people and blah, blah, blah, blah. blah And she did. But what she very quickly discovered was that the other deaf students that were in that internship did not have the same level of dreams and goals that she had because they truly believed that Their opportunities were limited, that they couldn't get a job in science or they couldn't go to college for these things because that wasn't something that was open to them or they d

But they have to start with that belief that they can. If they don't have that core belief, and if they're not surrounding themselves with those core beliefs, then oftentimes it ends up with people like this who tell them what they can and cannot do, and they believe it. um So that's my little soapbox.

Lindsay

 Yeah, well, I agree with you. 

Crystal 

Yeah, and I think the issue, again, with when she was talking about, well, you shouldn't be teaching them. There is a culture out there, mainly of older deaf people that have had bad experiences with hearing people, which that's fair, that have that belief. But the problem is, is that there's not enough people teaching sign language, right? The more people that teach sign language, the more... people will know sign language and the more people will be able to communicate with other deaf people. So in my opinion, it would be great. Anybody, if anybody can teach it and people can communicate, then awesome. The more the merrier, right? But I'm also a hearing person, even though I have deaf children, so maybe my thought process is not in the line with that. But I feel like my heart goes out to you that somebody made you feel like you couldn't pursue that and have that experience. And in my opinion, I'd be like, well, who do you think you are?

Lindsay

Right. I know. And that's what my husband was like, why are you going to listen to one person? don't know, but that lady, she still echoes in my mind. What she said was so hurtful, but it, but it embarrassed me too. it shamed me. Like I felt ashamed that i hadn't thought of others and I never even considered it. But if I would have been a sign language teacher, My goal would not have been to teach people how to interpret. My goal would have planted the seed of interest and love that they would want to learn more and that they would want to communicate with people who knew sign language. That's what I hear all the time is, you know, I was lonely. I was left out. Well, there's planting one more seed of someone who's going to seek out that lonely person.

I am going to communicate with you and I love you. Now, I do have videos now of sign language practice and I do say i am not a teacher. all I'm doing is encouraging practice. Like sign sentence and I ask a question. Now I do have someone who is deaf make sure that the sentence is correct and the ASL structure is correct, but I just want to plant seeds.

Crystal

Yeah. But let's talk about what direction you did go into then. So now you are and author and you also have a website. So let's first talk about your new book that you've just come out with about hearing loss.

Lindsay 

Okay. So I remember when I finally grasped the idea of what hearing was, and how hearing worked, that I told myself a little story in my mind of what this looks like in a a very simple way, because I am just simple.

And so I had this idea for a story that went along with how I see hearing. And when I think of hearing bones, I think of dog bones. Now, they don't look like dog bones, but that's what I see in my mind. And so I've written stories throughout my life. but I didn't really seriously pursue anything until I stopped my job as a teacher. And I you know, I just told my husband, I was like, I have all these stories. I feel like God has closed this door for me and he has opened another one for me. And so I'd really like to write.

And one of the stories that I wrote is called, I'm getting a cochlear implant. Learn about how I will hear. it has two parts. It's got a story part and it's got ah science part. The story part is for the kids to take to their classrooms to help their peers understand what is in their ear or what is on their head and to represent them in stories. It's a super easy way, in my opinion, to understand what hearing loss is and how a cochlear implant works. But not just that. It teaches what sound is, how typical hearing works, and ah path from your ear all the way into your brain. So the story goes, there's a little girl and she can't hear like her friends and her friends have a little man in their ear who plays a piano. And she has a piano in her ear too, but there's no little man to play it. And so the cochlear implant is going to be a little man who plays her piano. That's the only difference between her hearing peers and her. And all of these pieces in the story represent the parts of the ear. So the piano is the hair cells and the auditory nerve. And so whenever they learn about all this stuff, like talks about how sound is like a car and an ear is like a street. There's a path you have to follow. Come on in, take a seat. And this music note goes over a beating drum and these three little bones that are really wiggly and it's a wiggly note. And so it's just, a way to see how hearing works in a kid-friendly way. But then in the back, the back part of the book really is for the adults. It's not really for the kids. And it's for that teacher who doesn't understand. It's for that parent who doesn't know what in the world you're talking about. And it explains things in a way that you can even explain to a kid. So I have several different pages. One is what is sound. Sound is perceived. Did you know that? 

Crystal: 

Yeah, we actually hear with our brain, not with our ears. 

Lindsay

We really do. So the whole thing of if the tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Well, only if there's somebody to hear it, then it makes a sound, right? So it talks about sound and it talks about how typical hearing works, how it starts in the outer ear and it goes through the ear canal then it wiggles the bones and all these kinds things. And then it talks about different types of hearing loss and what that looks like. So A conductive loss means that there's something that happens before the inner ear or sensory neural hearing loss that happens beyond the inner ear. And here are some devices and this device would work for this type of loss and this device would work for this type of loss. And also some people may choose not to do anything.

There's zero opinion because I don't have an opinion. i don't have a reason to have an opinion. It's just the information. But then it also has a page about the audiogram and it has a page about the speech banana because those are things that parents are going to be introduced to And so if you choose to have a hearing device, they're going to program it in order for you to have access to as much speech sounds as you can. And those fall on an audiogram. It's a way for these parents and these, the teachers to hold it in their to read it as many times as they need to. Instead of a 15 minute conversation at the doctor's office, which makes no sense, you know, go home and read it over and over and over again. And I really think that it will benefit everyone. It's information. There's no bias, but even if you choose not to go the hearing device route, I don't think it hurts for you to know the information.

Even if somebody doesn't have hearing loss, it doesn't hurt to know how hearing works. 

Crystal: 

So this book is really for everyone. So this is for children so they can learn about their own hearing loss. And it's for parents and teachers or other people that have connections to deaf and hard of hearing children. So where can people get this? I will say right now that I will have a link to it in the description. So anybody who's looking for it, they can go to the description and click on it and you can Get it right there. But it's on Amazon. I know that. But is there anywhere else it is? 

Lindsay

You can order it from Barnes & Noble. It's available. i think you really can order it anywhere. I really want it in libraries. There is a list of books that are all about hearing loss. And we need to get that list into the libraries so that everybody has the opportunity to read it and to look at it without paying for it.

But what my hope is, ah have big dreams, but I think every single person who is in any kind of program who are you going to be working with children with hearing loss needs to read it. It needs to be in audiology programs, speech language pathology programs, teachers of the deaf. It needs to be in counselors offices at schools. needs to be in the special ed library, their special library ah that is more specific to different types of needs.

I want it to be in every library, everywhere. i just think that it would be so beneficial. Or i imagine like the mom who's just found out about her child, she's hearing, she doesn't understand, she doesn't know. and then she reads this book and it's like, oh, okay. Now I kind of have a little bit better understanding. And so when I'm trying to explain this to my family, Well, I don't really know how to explain it, but here, read this book. This is going to help you. It's going to clear a few things up. I really hope it educates people and just helps people.

Crystal

 Yeah. So I think it would be definitely beneficial because I know that when my children were identified, And I got the news from the audiologist, like there were all of these things that I didn't understand. And it's overwhelming. And to be honest, when I heard your child can't hear, my brain just switched off because it was like, I don't know if you want to call it a trauma response or whatever, but I didn't hear anything after that. And so everything that I had to learn, even though my audiologist probably went over all of the information, I did not comprehend any of that. And so that's where something like this book could come in. And if you had access to this, you could be like, hey, go read this book. This explains it in the simplest terms. And even it's just enough to allow a parent or a teacher to ask the right questions. Oftentimes we don't know what to ask. We don't know what we don't know, you know? So it's hard to ask for how do I advocate for my child the best way possible if I don't know the basics. And so this will be an amazing tool for that. So you have a website as well. Let's talk about what that is. 

Lindsay

Okay. I have several websites. So whenever I started My company, I decided i don't need a publisher. I'm going to be the publisher. I can do all this stuff by myself. So I made my own business. It's called His Little Light of Mine. And I felt like God told me there's something inside of you that I put in there and I want you to let everybody see it. And so that's why my company is called His Little Light of Mind. So I have a website that is called hislittlelightofmind.com and it has a lot of my things.

So my book, I'm getting a cochlear implant, learn about how I will hear is just one. i have many picture books and I have activity books and all that kind of stuff is on His Little Light of Mind. Now, because i just have a heart for the deaf community, I have that book. I also have ASL word searches and I make ASL merch. And so now I have a separate part of my company and it's called His Little Hands of Mine. And at His Little Hands of Mine, I have a group that is for hearing people who want to know more. Maybe you might be interested in sign languages. Maybe you're taking sign language, but you have no idea about the science of hearing loss. Maybe you're a parent who has just found out about your child and you want a safe place to ask questions where you're not going to be attacked because you don't know something. I have a group that's private and I have a page and both of those are called His Little Hands of Mine. And I'm very particular about my group. No tolerance. If there's nastiness, I'll just block them. I really want a safe place to ask questions because you don't know.

I finally have a connection with a woman. She is an older woman. She's completely deaf, but she is safe and I can ask her anything.

And she is kind to me because I don't know. I heard somebody call ah person a person heary and a deafy. And so I said, i encourage sign language practice, but I also encourage learning sign language from a person who's deaf. But sometimes people ask me, well, is this the right sign for this? Is this the right sign for that? And so said, well, go ask a deafie. And then I thought, let me ask my friend if that's okay. So I told her, I was like, I said, please go learn from a deaf person, but I actually called them a deafie. Is that okay? And she said, a lot of people in the community do call each other deafies, but it's probably not a good idea for a hearing person to call a deaf person a deafie. And I'm like, okay, then I won't do that anymore. But I want my group to be a place like that. Just ask because you don't know what you don't know and you can't change what you don't know is wrong.

Crystal

So I will have everything in the description, including where to get the book, where to get connected with the website and the page, um and also the ISBN number if you want to request your library to have those books. So before we wrap up, is there anything else that we haven't talked about that you feel like you want to make people aware of that we haven't talked about yet? 

Lindsay

Yes. So my book is called I'm Getting a Cochlear Implant, Learn About How I Will Hear. So it's kind of misleading. I've had people say, well, my child doesn't have a cochlear implant. Do I need to read it? Yeah, because they have hearing loss. you You know, you'll learn something. So just because it says I'm getting a cochlear implant, it's not just for people who want to get a cochlear implant.

Now, I did have somebody ask me if it talks about the surgery process. It does not. It does not talk about American Sign Language. Even though I love it, that's not in the book. But the more that I've been...out in the world and on Facebook and connecting with different communities and different people and partnering with different groups. I partner with a nonprofit called Deaf Heartbeat Inc. And one of her goals is to get more books about sign language and deaf awareness into the little libraries. So I'm super excited about that because as an author, even not the deaf awareness side, but just as an author in general, I want to be part of doing stuff with the little libraries and planting those seeds and just connecting people together.

As an author, I've met a ton of self-published authors. I have recently connected with many authors who have written other books about hearing loss. And every single one of these people has a story. And they're like everyday people. I just met a girl recently. she Her book just came out called Millie's Magical Ears. And it started as, i want more people to understand my child. It's just so exciting to be connected with other people who are sharing about their families, but who are also following their dreams and not worrying about what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do.

Crystal

You are doing amazing, great things. but And I'm so excited that your book is out. i just looked on there yesterday and it gets amazing reviews. So thank you so much, Lindsay, for being here. And I'm so excited for the word to get out about all the amazing things you're doing.

Lindsay

Well, thanks for having me. This was really fun. 

Crystal

If you're just tuning in for the first time to my podcast, I encourage you to go back and listen to some of my previous episodes from last season where we discuss an array of topics from all different perspectives. Don't forget to like and subscribe to my channel. And if you really like my podcast, check out my Facebook and Instagram pages. And of course, share with your friends. Also, check out my YouTube channel where I have the first three episodes of the podcast interpreted into American Sign Language and will be continuing to add more as time goes on. Stay tuned for future episodes coming out, but until next time, I'm signing off.