Anyone go to a Deaf/Hard of Hearing group?

Hearing Loss
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Good morning all :slight_smile:

Just wondering if any of yous attend HoH groups? I have finally found one that is close to me and I am tempted to go, however when I filled in my details, I had an email back saying to be aware that they are mainly those who are 60 and over. I feel so guilty that I felt a bit upset because I am only 31 & I thought I would be able to meet people of my age who are going through the same thing. I am absolutely not being disrespectful, I promise! I think majority of them probably have deafness due to aging whereas I had mine since I was very young. Is it still worth me going? I have no idea what I’d have in common, though. I just want to start getting out there. I have zero self confidence and fed up of being lonely and having no friends near by.

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Good Afternoon @craftycrocheter, only ever experienced 2 Deaf Clubs, they where okay, but not brilliant… TBH, I had more fun at BSL Classes, (British Sign Language) and Lip Reading Classes, you make lots of friends there, and you are with likeminded souls, and you get a great laugh, making a complete fool of yourself in front of class, helps you to build confidence, the age of participants is quite varied, young mums whom have a Deaf child, might want to develop their sign language skills, younger deafened adults, teachers, police, and folks whom just want to learn BSL, plus you gain a skill that may prove useful, at some point… Basically, Durham University (The Uni for the Deaf) controls all the exams, they can be strict, all the examiners are profoundly Deaf, with BSL as their first language, there are several levels, Beginner, Intermediate, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Interpreter is the final level, to reach Interpreter will take, many thousands of hours learning, I got to Level 2, which probably equates to around 2k hours worth of learning, my wife was Level 2, to reach Level 3, she was 1 full day learning, plus lots of homework, every week for 2 years, the exams are extremely thorough, both practical, and videotaped, videos are sent to Durham for final scrutiny, before awards are issued… Elspeth made Level 3. Beginner to Level 1, isn’t that intense, but from level 1 upwards they turn the screw! Getting to Level 1, is fun, but if you want to go further, be prepared to work hard… :grin: Cheers Kev :wink:

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I can appreciate your feelings & it’s great you have made an enquiry. How about trying one session & see how you get on? You may get some pointers for something more suitable if it’s not for you & you don’t know if you’ll benefit unless you try. I found once I left school it felt like you were on your own as seems very unusual to meet other younger people with hearing loss. Have you tried asking RNID? They may be able to suggest something & also run some courses for children with hearing loss (sorry wasn’t sure if your child has loss too from other posts).

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I attended a couple of HLAA chapter meetings when I was your age and didn’t find them to be very helpful. The people there were very nice but they were mostly in the seventies and older and we didn’t have much in common other than using hearing aids.

I had much more fun attending local deaf group meetings. There was the initial barrier of having to learn to sign, but it was worth it because they were a more diverse group and uplifting to hang out with.

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Could be a “safe” way to put yourself out there and see how it feels without any pressure about making “friends.”