Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Deaf Children and Music

So Kim sparked a memory for me with her post about music. When I was pregnant with Gage at age 26, I had a good job which I enjoyed, even the one hour drive gave me time to listen to my music. I love anything from rockers like Pearl Jam, to rappers like Tupac (2Pac, aka Makaveli)... Now as I drove that one hour to and from work, I would crank up "my music" and sing the words as best I could, admiring the geniuses who wrote them. I noticed a consistency. When I played rap, my dear sweet, unborn child would roll around inside my belly. He'd stretch and kick, and I'd laugh, imagining him throwing up his "rap hands" as I did when I would get into the songs. People always would tell me, "you better enjoy that music while you can!" meaning the lyrical content wouldn't be appropriate for a young child. So I did...enjoyed every word, every breath, every story told thru those speakers.
When Gage was born, we quickly found out why he picked rap as his favorite music...he was in fact deaf. He couldn't hear me talk to him as he rode reverse in the back seat, he couldn't even see me...but he could feel the radio...if I put it on just the right tune. After all, I didn't have to worry about the lyrics anymore. So we continued our love of rap...until he got his cochlear implant that is. Now as you may have seen from previous posts, he's ACDC/Alice in Chains all the way! As far as feeling the music now, Brook is my rapper. She loves bass! But Gage loves the guitars and the voices that scream! Gage does still feel music and songs...but on a much deeper/higher level now. I don't mean physically, I mean he has learned how to emotionally feel a song. If you look to the upper right column of my blog here you'll see two slide shows. The one where Gage and Brook are babies has a beautifully done version of "Amazing Grace". Gage nearly cried when I was making that slide show just from listening to that song. He came up to me, hid behind me (one of the few times he's ever been shy or embarrassed) and asked me if I might cry listening to that song. I saw the look on his face and I could tell he was a little touched. I explained how beautiful the song was and lots of people cry at songs. He doesn't have tears...never has, never will so not a tear was shed. But he was touched. He's much more into music than Brook is at this point, as a matter of fact I have to wrap it up here, he's awakened and now waiting his morning youtube dose of Highway to Hell...so much for that lyrical content huh?

6 comments:

tammy said...

We love music in our house to ... from Ryan's AC/DC to Kailyn's Hanna Montana. All of our road trips even have their own theme song! Kailyn gets very emotional with certain songs, it's amazing how a 7 year old can hear the words and really feel them!

It's also one of the harder things I'm dealing with - Aiden not hearing music. I never thought of him feeling the vibrations of it though! I'll have to pump up the volume with some rap in the car! : )

misskri said...

Thomas loves music now. He will dance to the beat..slow or fast. When Jonathan and I are singing Thomas will try his best and sing along.
There are a few songs that I think of that I used to listen to while I was pregnant that make me emotional. Once Thomas was born I would hold him tight and listen to those same songs and cry. Now, I listen to those songs and we dance, dance, dance.
I LOVE Thomas' CI's!!! And I think he is pretty fond of them too!!!

Tiffani Hill-Patterson said...

Music was one reason we wanted Riley to get CIs. We're not musically talented, but we love to sing and dance, and I couldn't imagine her not being able to hear Elvis or Bon Jovi or "How Great Thou Art."

Of course, her favorite right now is the soundtrack to "Grease." ;-) So much for lyrical content, huh?

Prince Andrew and the Queen Mum said...

Music is a big part of the curriculum we do...and Andrew enjoys some stuff and not others. He doesn't like 'pretty music.' i have not defined what exactly that is but there is a difference in his mind. there is some stuff that he says..'they are singing loud and off key.' they really aren't but there is 'something' there. we have toyed around with moving to the new 120 whatver it is...but want to see what it does for adults more first since Andrew isn't too good at helping us in the mapping at this point. soon though we plan to see what that does for him. (btw...my art and music blog will be focusing on some of the stuff we are doing on that front over the next year.)

Hannah Holestine said...

hVal - So glad you found my blog! I will definately check out deafvillage.com. It always helps to meet other people in similar situations. I'm sure I could learn a lot from your experiences with your kids w/ CI's!
Hannah

Unknown said...

Beautiful post..I miss you! I've been absent...your kids are so cooooooool, even their taste in music is cooooooool! You know what they say, like Momma like cochlear kids! hugs and a smack, Jodi