“Is your mom is Deaf and Dumb?” or “Is she a Deaf Mute?” I hear these two mostly used phrases all the time when it comes to explaining my life. I felt so incredibly powerful in that moment while my mom, on the other hand, had no clue what had just happened. Really, who does? I turned around and said, “Excuse me?” and, to my surprise, they both ran off, shocked, that I had heard everything. Deaf people do not enjoy being made fun of. All I wanted to do was shut down and cry. I tried to ignore them but, as they got a little bit closer, I could actually hear the words they were saying about us. They started flapping their arms around imitating sign and giggling. I immediately knew they were making fun of us. They were following behind us with their hands over their mouths, whispering. There were two girls, around my age, walking in the same aisle. I will never forget this one day, my mom and I were walking through the grocery store, chatting with our hands.

It was easy to learn how to speak with her help. My grandmother was an intelligent woman and very soft spoken. It was then that they had decided that moving closer to my grandmother was the best thing to do in order for me to succeed. My parents were so disappointed as if they had done something wrong. They told my parents that they were holding me back in kindergarten due to my speaking skills. My mom ended up putting me in speech classes, with the schools advice, in order to learn how to pronunciate my words better. We had so much fun together and I did not have to pretend to be like everyone else. I felt so close to them, more than I did with anyone else. Thanks to both of my parents, I had less than a handful of friends who understood exactly what it was like to be me. I did not realize that I was different from everyone else. I spoke with my hands and I truly believed I was your normal, average kid. No one truly understood what it was like to be me, a CODA. I felt more alone in this world than anything. “I didn’t know deaf people can have children…” “Can deaf people drive?” I really did not feel like a rock star. When you elaborate on what it means, all of a sudden, they become so interested in your life as if you were some celebrity rock star, asking you so many questions that just does not make sense. There are not a lot of people in this world that knows what a CODA is, unfortunately. “CODA” stands for Child of Deaf Adults, which means that you are a hearing child with deaf parents. Blog post contributed by Adrienne Abercrombie, Deaf Advocate / Case Manager, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services / Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida

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