Marisa Smit

What is the difference between Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids? I kept a diary since I was wearing hearing aids and to my experience when I heard the sound for the first time in my life. When I was the deafest child in South Africa with a hearing loss of 145 decibels, a Doctor compared me to a cake that flopped, told my mom that she must send me away and bake another one. He also mentioned to my mom that I would never talk. I was too deaf to be educated. My mother resigned from her job and enrolled in audiologist courses to help me learn to speak and teach me the languages. She sacrificed everything for me.  I remember when I was so angry with my mom and asked her why I didn't get cochlear implants when I was a baby. She told me that she would give me a cochlear implant but the doctor told her that I will never get a cochlear implant because my skull was too small for the operation and wasn't a candidate for a cochlear implant. The doctor recommended her to get hearing aids ...

Deaf Culture is important because it allows deaf individuals to be who they are. There's more to a person than whether or not they can hear, so don't just focus on their ears. Deaf Culture is the heart of Deaf communities everywhere in the world. They take pride in their Deaf identity. They are seen as a minority group. Language and Culture are inseparable. The Deaf Culture doesn’t believe in using the word “disabled” because the word implies “less than”- as though they are lacking something. By removing the label, they are also removing any stigma that might be attached. In Deaf Culture you see the world in a different way. Deaf people communicate differently. The Deaf seek out who is Deaf in a room or at a party because they relate effortlessly and understand each other. The Deaf don't believe they have a disability - and Deaf does not want to be fixed. They are a human too. I am aware that there is a huge argument in the middle of certain factions of the Deaf community t...

We all do have our own insecurities about small things and it is normal to have down days where you feel you can't seem to do anything right. I have been lacking in self-confidence about myself many times such as my weight, my hair, my deaf accent, not smart enough, I'm not good enough, everything! Insecurity kills all that it is beautiful. The problem is not with what you are insecure about, the problem is what you think of it...And what you think of yourself. As a beauty queen, Miss Deaf South Africa 2019/20, I learned very fast to build self-confidence. It will take some time, but the best way is to take baby steps from time to time to develop self-confidence. When I went to mainstream school, did public speaking, organized fundraisers for deaf children, qualified as a Pilates instructor, and entered the Miss Deaf SA beauty pageant, I had to work hard at being a picture of confidence and always ooze grace under pressure. It is impossible to be a nervous role-model. Everybo...

I was diagnosed as profoundly deaf when I turned 14 months old. It was the late 80's and the ENT specialist told my mom, that I was the deafest person (according to my brainstem audiogram) to be diagnosed. According to doctors and experts, I would never talk. I had a hearing loss of 145 decibels, which means that a Boeing 747 could land behind me, and I would not notice! My mother, Annemarie, resigned from her job as a music teacher and enrolled in a course in Audiology, to reach a language to express myself. Deaf people are immensely frustrated because they have no names for their emotions. My mom used a mirror to show me my anger, happiness, fear, love, etc and taught me words for it these for the first of 4 years of my life, every experience was a language lesson and not an even a picnic or a day at the beach was only an outing, anymore. There were so many words! At this stage, I was wearing Phonak Hearing Swiss which enabled me to hear vowels, but no consonants, amplifie...

The most important thing about how to communicate  with Deaf people is eye-contact. There was a time in my life when I was having conversations with hearing people and they would look away during the conversation, I was lost! It is the most frustrating thing for Deaf people when hearing people do not keep eye-contact. Why it is frustrating?  Because, in their deaf culture, their eyes are their powerful tools to use for lip-reading, the interpreter's hands, sign language, and body language.  It is like when your child is on the cell phone for hours, without listening to your conversation.  Your face needs to be the first screen, not your mobile, computer, television, or anything else. Deaf people feel it is extremely rude if you do not look them in their eyes. If you talk to a deaf person without making direct eye-contact, you actually exclude them from the conversation of the given moment. To be left out and ignored is the loneliest experience in the world. Nobody wa...

*** In my experience as a profoundly deaf teenager in a mainstream school, for the first time,  I must confess that it was very challenging.  I wasn't used to a crowded classroom. At Deaf schools, you have 5 or 6 classmates but  in the mainstream, 30 or 35. On my first day at Jan Van Riebeeck Primary school in Cape Town, I was excited to try this new challenge at the  mainstream school. Suddenly I had 11 new friends  and we were always together. During intervals, w e sat together on the grass in a circle.  A s a Deaf person, I felt left out most of the time because the conversations went on and on from different angles and person s . I became more silent and lonely. It was exhaust ing  for me. I use my eyes for lip reading and felt totally ex hausted after breaks, trying to follow every word my friends spoke, to feel part of the group. After the break, it was back to the classroom and nonstop focusing on  the teacher's lips  until the end of ...

I was 4 years old when I was sent away to the hostel at De la Bat School for the Deaf in Worcester, South Africa. We used to live on the farm in Moorressburg, a small town outside Malmesbury. It was the only deaf school that my mom knew of. Sadly I stayed at the hostel during the weekdays and weekends I could go home and be a farm girl. Every Monday my mom's heart broke when she had to drive me back to the deaf school. De la Bat School is where you are taught to learn Sign Language for the deaf. I remember as a little girl I wasn't interested in Sign Language. Being the deafest person in South Africa and wearing Phonak Swiss hearing aids, I wasn't interested in Sign Language. Sign Language would make it easier for me to communicate with deaf people. Unfortunately, I was a difficult child who liked to do my things and avoiding rules. As a child I was living in a fantasy world, I refused to do Sign Language and every term my rapport would state with huge red marks:  "Mar...