The Importance of Listening & Communicating
Have you ever had the experience of communicating with people with hearing and speaking disabilities? More commonly known as deaf & mute people.
I would like to tell a little story about listening and communicating using the deaf community as a model.
It just happened that both of my wife's parents were deaf/mute.
They met at the Nebraska School for the Deaf and later married and had six children all of which can hear.
My mother in law passed away before my marriage to her daughter but my father in law lived near us until his death in a car accident.
Listening for a deaf mute begins by paying close attention to what is being signed.
No ten second sound bites for him.
Paying close attention to what is being communicated was essential for him to know what was going on around him.
Going to a basketball game at NSD would result in standing inside the gym for a time while he scanned the crowd until he found someone he recognized and then began "talking" to him in sign language.
Imagine, anybody that cared to listen in could do so if they could read "sign".
When I found myself alone with my father in law, I would always try to sign by spelling out words and hoping he could interpret.
Amazingly, he could sense what I was trying to communicate to him.
I usually capped off the conversation by writing on a tablet the message I wanted to convey.
A little known aspect of the deaf community is they love to group sing.
This is usually accomplished by one or two people leading the group in "signing" the lyrics.
They also maintain a tempo so that everybody stays together.
The deaf community loves group singing at all sorts of celebrations including funerals.
After each song, they wave their hands to indicate their pleasure in singing.
What we encounter in today's "hearing" world is just the opposite of "listening" and "communicating" effectively.
We often let our minds wander beginning 10 seconds after someone begins talking to us.
What about the rapid fire "talking" that is taking place these days.
Is this a result of the "multi-tasking" that seems to be popular? Can you imagine someone in the deaf community signing so fast that nobody can interpret what he is saying.
He would find himself alone and without anyone wanting to talk with him.
It is imperative that deaf people must "look" at what is being said by "sign" in order to interpret.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the hearing community could or would slow down the tempo of speaking and wouldn't it be wonderful if the hearing community could or would "listen" to what is being said?
I would like to tell a little story about listening and communicating using the deaf community as a model.
It just happened that both of my wife's parents were deaf/mute.
They met at the Nebraska School for the Deaf and later married and had six children all of which can hear.
My mother in law passed away before my marriage to her daughter but my father in law lived near us until his death in a car accident.
Listening for a deaf mute begins by paying close attention to what is being signed.
No ten second sound bites for him.
Paying close attention to what is being communicated was essential for him to know what was going on around him.
Going to a basketball game at NSD would result in standing inside the gym for a time while he scanned the crowd until he found someone he recognized and then began "talking" to him in sign language.
Imagine, anybody that cared to listen in could do so if they could read "sign".
When I found myself alone with my father in law, I would always try to sign by spelling out words and hoping he could interpret.
Amazingly, he could sense what I was trying to communicate to him.
I usually capped off the conversation by writing on a tablet the message I wanted to convey.
A little known aspect of the deaf community is they love to group sing.
This is usually accomplished by one or two people leading the group in "signing" the lyrics.
They also maintain a tempo so that everybody stays together.
The deaf community loves group singing at all sorts of celebrations including funerals.
After each song, they wave their hands to indicate their pleasure in singing.
What we encounter in today's "hearing" world is just the opposite of "listening" and "communicating" effectively.
We often let our minds wander beginning 10 seconds after someone begins talking to us.
What about the rapid fire "talking" that is taking place these days.
Is this a result of the "multi-tasking" that seems to be popular? Can you imagine someone in the deaf community signing so fast that nobody can interpret what he is saying.
He would find himself alone and without anyone wanting to talk with him.
It is imperative that deaf people must "look" at what is being said by "sign" in order to interpret.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the hearing community could or would slow down the tempo of speaking and wouldn't it be wonderful if the hearing community could or would "listen" to what is being said?
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