Adapting to life without the power of sight, smell, or hearing is always a huge challenge, but there are countless inspiring people out there who manage to live rich, fulfilling lives, even without one or more of their senses.
While the rest of us take our senses for granted in so many different ways, these people face a lot of obstacles to overcome each and every day, and some of them might surprise you!
Anna Trupiano, a first-grade teacher, works at a school that educates deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing children from their early years up to eighth grade. As well as teaching the kids the basics of math, reading, writing, and more, Anna also has to help her students who have limited or no hearing adapt to life and society in different ways, and she recently found herself faced with a rather unexpected task: teaching deaf children about farts.
One of Anna’s students farted loudly in the middle of class and was surprised when some of their classmates looked around and started laughing.
The child was totally unaware that farts made a sound, and Trupiano had to explain, in American Sign Language, what had happened.
What followed was an amusing educational experience for all involved, as several other deaf children in the class were surprised to learn this valuable lesson about passing gas.
The poor child in question was shocked by this discovery and even asked Anna to tell the other kids to stop listening to their farts, but Anna had to explain that hearing children can’t just turn this ability on and off at will.
She also had to go into detail when trying to explain to the children which farts make noise and which ones don’t. It’s an amusing topic, but it’s also an important one for the children to know. It’s vital to learn this information early in life, rather than later on when they get to high school or find themselves in a more embarrassing situation.
The kids had more and more questions for Anna, turning her whole class into Farting 101 as they were surprised to learn that their parents and even their teacher could also pass a little gas from time to time.
They even asked if it was possible for hearing people to see the farts, leading to another very funny exchange.
One kid claimed that ‘green smoke’ comes out of people’s butts, but Anna clarified that this doesn’t actually happen in real life, only on TV and in cartoons.
This was clearly a funny experience for the little ones and Anna too, but it actually reminds us just how different life can be for people who are deprived of one or more of their senses. Little things that we take for granted can represent genuine challenges and big learning experiences for them. And Anna was keen to remind everyone who read the story about the issues faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing children.
I know it started with farts, but the real issue is that many of my students aren’t able to learn about these things at home or from their peers because they don’t have the same linguistic access. So many of my students don’t have families who can sign well enough to explain so many things it’s incredibly isolating for these kids.
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