An Oxford mother of a hard-of-hearing child is hoping to raise funds to send two deaf or hard-of-hearing children to the same summer camp that’s been so beneficial to her son.
Kendrea Shenfeld has so far received about $100 in pledges toward the $500 it would cost to send two children to the weeklong camp at Brooklyn, Mich.’s Holley Family Village. The camp is run through the Holley Ear Institute and St. John’s Hospital and goes throughout the summer from June until August.
The Shenfelds have the money to pay for their son, Griffin, and prefer the two spaces go to needy children who can’t afford to go.
‘It would kill me if a family had a child who needed to go to the camp but couldn’t gosince they didn’t have the money,? she said. ‘It’s such a great experience for the kids and nothing like this camp in the country. It’s an incredible experience for a deaf child to go to a community where everyone signs and they can talk to them. They’re free to be themselves.?
Especially when they have camp counselors–all deaf teens–they can relate to. The counselors all sign fluently. From these counselors, Shenfeld said, the children get wonderful ideas of leadership and learn that while they have a disability, it doesn’t have to disable them.
‘You can be deaf and still be a leader and can do what other people can do,? she said. ?[Griffin] loves that and it’s been influential to him. They see deaf persons are just the same as anyone else.?
The camp has been a ‘magical? experience for her son, allowing him to see he’s not alone in his disability. She recalled how Griffin walked down a path, met a man who signed something to him.
‘Griffin’s facial expression was like, ‘That guy knows sign language??? Shenfeld said. ‘It was phenomenally amazing to him to have someone besides himself and me who knew sign language. At the camp, he can totally relax and be himself.?
Like many children, Griffin loves to keep his mind occupied with computer games like Spore and with Lego Bionics. But Griffin’s unlike many children.
A weak television signal provided Shenfeld with the first evidence of something different with her youngest son.
When Griffin was 2 years old, he and his older brothers were watching television. The signal weakened, resulting in loud, crackling snow.
‘Gus (now 10) and Will (now eight) hit the decks like it was a bomb exploding,? Shenfeld recalled. ‘Griffin sat there like nothing was happening at all. We thought that was weird.?
Griffin, who will turn six on Jan. 22, 2009, also showed an inability to locate someone’s voice when they spoke from behind him. He also pronounced words differently, saying the word ‘more?, for example, as ‘moe?.
‘The ‘r? sound is in the back of your throat where you can’t see it on the lips,? Shenfeld said. This told her he was reading her lips and not hearing the word.
Born at 31 weeks, Griffin was premature and also had bad jaundice. While they’ll never know for sure how it came about, subsequent tests (which included an incorrect diagnosis of a sensory disorder) confirmed that he was indeed hard-of-hearing.
For some parents, learning their child has a hearing problem can be devastating. For Shenfeld, though, it was a cause for relief. Griffin had had frustrating behavioral issues and to realize it was due to hearing problems and not a serious mental issue.
‘You could imagine how hard it is to be two and start to get a hold of some speech, not be able to say things clearly, not be able to understand and not understand what people want from you,? his mother said. ‘We were worried it was something much more difficult. Hearing loss was something we knew we could handle.?
Griffin wears hearing aids and is able to hear the doorbell ring, cars going by or birds chirping. When people talk, though, things start to get especially confusing.
‘When a voice comes in, it sounds like two different radio stations coming in on the same station,? Shenfeld said. ‘It’s that kind of miscommunication where you get different speech. We were told he’d never learn how to talk, but when you meet him you’d be surprised. He talks fantastically.?
She prefers to classify her son as ‘hard of hearing? and says that as Griffin gets older, he’ll have to decide whether he wants to be known as hard of hearing or deaf. Deaf people, according to Shenfeld, classify ‘deaf? as someone who can hear nothing at all while ‘hard of hearing? is someone who hears muffled sounds and can hear better with audio aids; for the deaf, hearing aids amplify nothing.
Shenfeld teaches Griffin sign language to help him better communicate with others. She’ll point to objects, such as a lamp, and then make the sign for it. Griffin caught on quickly, and with the insatiable curiosity children normally have, things took off from there.
‘At a friend’s house, he’d point at everything and ask, ‘What’s that??? she recalled.
She also has a sign language book she consults in case Griffin asks her a sign that she doesn’t know.
Currently, Griffin attends Bloomfield Hills? Eastover Elementary School and is in its Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing program.
What’s it like when people meet Griffin and learn he’s deaf?
‘When he was two or three, it was funny and absolutely hysterical to me how people would say, ‘Hey! That’s really cool!?? Shenfeld said. ‘I think what they meant was they thought it was neat that we were using a different language–sign language–to communicate with him.?
And when it comes to the camp, Griffin has lots of people to communicate with.
Among the camp activities are archery, arts and horseback. There are also buffalo near the camp that they can see and feed.
‘The buffalo had a bloody eye,? Griffin said. ‘I went to the farm and fed them corn.?
‘Another interesting thing is we’re not the only family in the community with a deaf child,? Shenfeld said. ‘A few families in our little community benefit from camp.?
Griffin is also being featured in a Holley Ear Institute promotional video to raise funds for the camp.
To make a pledge or for more information, e-mail Shenfeld at mishenfelds@charter.net or through snail mail at: 675 Cotts Way, Oxford, MI 48371
Holley’s website is at www.stjohn.org/Holley. The camp’s website is at www.stjohn.org/Holley/FamilyVillage.