By Kristin Blakely, Ph.D.
My ears have always played a big role in my life. As a child, I had multiple ear infections, ear tube surgeries, and persistent ear discomfort.
I remember an ENT doctor explaining to me how ears get blocked up with a metaphor about household plumbing. My conclusion, after his long-winded metaphorical comparison, was that I was inferiorly plumbed. Not an ideal takeaway!
My ear troubles were interconnected with my childhood speech issues. “Is she from Boston?” was a question my parents became accustomed to answering when other folks inquired about my accent. “No,” they would say, “she’s Canadian, from Toronto.” Mum or Dad would often follow up with a quick recap about my ear and speech challenges.
When I became a parent, I recognized the speech delays, pronunciation challenges, early hearing loss, and need for tubes with my own children. My children’s hearing loss was related to fluid in their ears, so it was temporary and improved with ear tubes and age. I am the only hearing aid wearer in my family.
While they were growing up and we were coping with these hearing challenges, I was grateful for our lovely and skilled pediatric otolaryngologist and I marvelled at the talents of our clever speech pathologists with their unending supply of creative activities.
For instance, “purple world” are two words together that I thought were just simply unpronounceable for one of our boys. But sure enough, with time, patience, and practice, he can say “purple world” like everyone else.
This son also introduced me to the word “sawn” which now is in the title of my children’s book, “I’ve Never Sawn That Before!” It was my son’s past tense form of the verb “to see.”
My firsthand experience with hearing, speech, and language development challenges, both personally and as a parent, helped shape my writing with AVID Language. Based in the U.K., AVID is a publisher of inclusive books for kids with and without hearing loss.
It is headed up by Tanya Saunders, who is a smart, kind, and thoughtful leader and advocate in the hearing loss arena. One of her twin daughters has profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, while the other twin has typical hearing.
AVID Language publishes books that feature characters who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH), shown with their cochlear implants and/or hearing aids. They are designed to help D/HH children attain specific speech, language, social development and cognitive milestones, but the books are written to resonate and be enjoyed by all children.
I hold a doctorate in sociology and gender and women’s studies and have taught in the university sector and work as a gender equity advocate. Now as a children’s author, I share in the AVID Language mission to foster compassion, acceptance, and inclusion with stories that normalize our diverse hearing and language journeys.
In “I’ve Never Sawn That Before!” the vivid imagination of a boy named Nate, who has a hearing loss, begins to run wild at bedtime, thinking about all of the things he’s never sawn before—a donut downpour, a dancing dinosaur, a sunken candy store, and more—all spirited attempts to stall the bedtime process. What family with young kids can’t relate?
With a highly relatable storyline, Nate worries about bedtime much like other children do. However, his anxieties are compounded by the removal of his hearing aids, making his bedroom dark, silent, and solitary.
In this creative rhyming read-aloud, Dad acknowledges Nate’s feelings of anxiety and provides him with affection, reassurance, and words of comfort. Dad leaves on a nightlight and the hallway light, and tucks Nate in with a stuffie with his familiar scent on it.
My hope is that this bedtime story resonates with families. It has kid-appealing illustrations and centers the experience of a child with hearing loss. It has a page of “tuck-in tips” for parents at bedtime, to help children with (and without) hearing loss.
I adore the tender dynamic between Nate and Dad in the story and how Dad is a wonderful mix of fun and funny, and gentle and understanding, but who also “gets the job done” as Nate finally drifts off into a cozy slumber at the end of the book.
There is more of Nate in the works. My next book with AVID Language, “Helpful Little Hands,” features Nate as a toddler learning to do lots and lots with his hands—including signing.
Kristin Blakely, Ph.D., is a Toronto-based children’s author, a sociologist with a doctoral degree from Loyola University Chicago, and a hearing aid wearer. For more, see kristinblakely.com and follow her at instagram.com/authorkristinb.
The Latest Blog Posts
After years playing water polo without my hearing aids because it’s a must, I’ve figured out my own game. I’ve got my own tricks.