Friday, May 19, 2000

Hearing-impaired student wins award for achievement

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By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

John Chapman (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        GREEN TOWNSHIP — John Chapman has severe-to-profound hearing loss. Without the hearing aids he has worn since he was 2, he can't hear what people standing next to him say unless they yell. Yet the Oak Hills High School senior is a B/C student and will attend Wright State University.

        His interest is computer engineering.

        Today,his academic achievement will be recognized when he receives Hamilton County's top award for hearing-impaired students.

        “The award is for wanting to make a difference in life, for wanting to do more,” said John, 18, of Green Township.

        The award is named in honor of J.F. Leahy, a 1987 Finneytown High School graduate who attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a school for hearing-impaired students. He died later that year from viral spinal meningitis. The award has been presented since 1988.

RESOURCES

For information about hearing loss:   • The Hearing, Speech & Deaf Center of Greater Cincinnati, with offices in Avondale, Batavia and Mason, offers testing, screening, treatment and referrals to children and adults, including help for families who are low-income or uninsured. 221-0527.   • American Speech-Language Hearing Association, based in Rockville, Md., can provide information, referrals and resources on hearing loss. Consumer helpline, (800) 638-8255, or visit the Web site at www.asha.org   • Self Help for Hard of Hearing People Inc. (SHHH) offers information on hearing loss, screening and devices that can help enhance listening. (301) 657-2248, TTY, at (301) 657-2249 or at www.shhh.org   • American Academy of Audiology can offer information on audiologists, licensed and certified hearing specialists, at www.audiology.org

        An estimated 1.7 percent of children nationwide have some hearing loss, and 0.1 percent are considered deaf, according to the Hearing, Speech & Deaf Center of Greater Cincinnati.

        Applied to the Tristate, that would amount to more than 8,300 hearing-impaired and nearly 500 deaf children.

        About 1 in 300 infants is born with hearing loss.

        John's hearing loss was the result of complications at birth, said his mother, Barbara Chapman. At 18 months, John's parents noted he wasn't talking, so his hearing was tested.

        He was fitted with hearing aids at 22 months.

        He was enrolled in regular classrooms and had speech therapy as a child. He experienced few problems until middle school. Some students made fun of his hearing aids and mimicked his speech patterns.

        “He always wanted to fit in but felt like he never did,” Mrs. Chapman said.

        Some of John's youth baseball coaches wouldn't let him play in games because he wore hearing aids.

        But John persevered, although school wasn't easy. He wondered why he was the one with hearing aids.

        “A couple of years ago, my attitude was negative,” he said.

        Then he went to a summer camp for hearing-impaired youths in Columbus.

        “That changed his life,” Mrs. Chapman said.

        Said John, “I started to see what I could do with my life. Now I'm looking forward to starting my life.”

        He went out for wrestling at Oak Hills as a senior. He wrestled in the 160-pound weight class. He is a pitcher and outfielder on a Knothole baseball team. He works at LaRosa's in Westwood.

        Heather Berkemeier is John's creative writing teacher at Oak Hills.

        “We do a lot of sharing in class, and he has a lot of guts to talk about when he was picked on and how he has overcome his disability,” Mrs. Berkemeier said.

        John will receive his award today at a picnic sponsored by the Hamilton County Educational Service Center at the Blue Ash Recreational Center.

        The educational service center operates the pro grams that work with 140 hearing-impaired students, preschool through high school, in the county.

        At the picnic, John will meet other children with hearing impairments. He has words of encouragement for younger students.

        “When they grow up, you'll learn to accept it. You don't realize it now. But you have to be patient and hang in there. You'll like the outcome.”

        John certainly does.

        He wrote about his disability for an English class assignment last week. What he once saw as a curse he now sees as a blessing.

        “I believe that if I could hear just as good as everyone else, I would be out partying, getting drunk or smoking stuff I would never think of today. I believe God has something special planned for me in life.”

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