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(Mary's Song - Taylor Swift) *I was seven and you were nine*
*I looked at you like the stars that shined In the sky, the pretty lights*
When I started primary school, a few months after receiving my first implant
I had a language age of two years and 11 months and I was five years old.
There was hesitation of me joining the same time as my age group but it was decided
I could start and repeat a school year later if needed.
It was definitely daunting for my parents, but not for me.
I couldn't wait to make new friends.
I went to a private christian school who were happy to accept me even though the challenges of
schooling a child with a cochlear implant were pretty unknown at the time.
It was early days when these children were entering the public school system.
Today, my primary school remains of the few fully outfitted with sound-field systems,
and it was the first one in Australia.
The sound-field system was introduced to my school when my class trialed it for a year
because of my hearing loss.
Because of the positive effect it had on the entire class,
the school decided to put the sound-field system all over the school.
As the cochlear implant I was wearing back when I started primary school
was fairly clunky, I had no choice. I wore it around a belt
around my waist, and it was pretty obvious it was there.
In my earlier years of school, my mum came into my classroom and
explained what it was to all my other classmates.
She said that I wasn't any different - I just needed help hearing sometimes.
I was visited by teachers from the Cora Barclay Centre for the Deaf,
twice a week when I first started primary school, and
by the time I had graduated primary school, it was once a month.
The first years of my speech therapy made me incredibly popular in the classroom,
because occasionally I got to bring a friend.
I used an FM system at primary school and then got to high school were I refused
to wear it, much to my mum's annoyance.
I told her I would go back to wearing it if my grades dropped.
They didn't, they improved!
The issues I had with my cochlear implant in primary school were few.
They were simple things like feedback with the FM,
things the teacher would say when she'd turned the system off, the bell was ringing and kids were rushing out of the class.
There was an instance when we were watching a news feature every week as a part of our
weekly lessons and I asked to have the subtitles on because they helped me.
Kids complained endlessly about the subtitles and needless to say, to this day
I will not ask to put subtitles for anything, except when my family's watching.
The same thing happened several times in high school when I tried again.
When I learned to read in primary school, my language skills began to soar.
By the time I left primary school I was well above in my age group in language skills.
This was also indicated on a national test called the NAPLAN.
Having a cochlear implant did not affect my primary school experience at all.
I was extremely lucky to have such a supportive school and family network,
as well as the incredible support that I got from the Cora Barclay Centre and still get today.
I was a happy child, and made many friends, and got involved in as many activities as I could.
Thank you for watching my video, I hope you enjoyed it!
You can also watch some more of my other videos just click on my name (positivelyhear) below.
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(Mary's Song - Taylor Swift)