The Ocean Inside : Youth Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

For Denzel, sound is a mysterious, mind-stretching thing.

He can hear some sounds, but he can't figure out what those sounds mean.

Half the time, he just ignores what he hears because none of it makes any sense.

At other times, however he tries to imagine what sound must be like for other people.

Then he concentrates on sound intensely. He tries to picture sound, to feel sound, to smell and to taste sound. Because he cannot hear, Denzel tries to imagine sound the way other people might imagine what it's like to fly.

But no matter how he tries, Denzel cannot imagine how it would feel to hear the way other people hear.Ten to 15 percent of all children in the United States are born with a hearing loss of some kind.

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing face different types of challenges as they mature.

Learning to communicate, overcome discrimination, and find their place in society can be difficult and confusing for children with hearing loss.

The situation is complicated by the fact that their peers, teachers, and parents may not understand their needs.

In "The Ocean Inside: Youth Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing", you will follow Denzel through his own journey through deafness. As you do, you will learn the unique challenges facing children who are deaf and hard of hearing, strategies for dealing with these challenges and approaches to deaf education, and accomplishments that other deaf people have made along the way.