I have always been terrible at locating sounds. I can remember doing some aural rehab back in my bilateral HA days where I had to try and locate sounds (e.g. left side vs right side). I failed miserably to the point where the speech therapist/audiologist gave up.
I usually locate sounds via a trial/error, visual, and elimination process. I cannot remember a time in my life where I’ve located a sound just by hearing…well…until last week.
I was over at Dennis’ place bright and early Thursday morning to ride to the airport together where we met up with Sarah to head to the HLAA convention (more on that later). I was waiting on Dennis to finish packing. I kept hearing something but could not figure out what it was.
I had a little light bulb moment and realized the volume changed as I walked around trying to figure out what I was hearing. It seemed to get quieter as I walked in a certain direction and when I moved my head in different directions (e.g. CI side away from the source of sound). I was able to figure out that the sound I was hearing was upstairs so I headed in that direction. As I approached Dennis’ bedroom I was able to guess what the sound was before I saw it.
It was Dennis’ bed alarm going off. Apparently he hadn’t put his CI on yet. 😉
Locating sounds is a natural skill for hearing people but a learned skill for deaf people.
Life Is About Creating Yourself 