If you aren’t someone who is hearing-impaired – or someone who grew up close to a hearing-impaired person or community – then you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what deaf people realize (or don’t realize) actually makes a sound.
Hilariously, though, one of those things – at least for children – is flatulence.
Image Credit: iStock
You know, a good ol’ fart.
First-grade teacher Anna Trupiano learned this tidbit herself, even after several years of teaching at a school that serves deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing students from birth through the eighth grade, when one of her deaf first graders audibly tooted.
Other children turned to look at him and then began to laugh, which caused the deaf child to be first surprised, and then confused as to why they were glancing his way.
Trupiano decided to make it an honest and funny teaching moment, and luckily for all of us, she shared the ensuing conversation on Facebook.
Image Credit: Facebook
While Trupiano agrees the moment was funny, she also told GOOD that she thinks the whole scenario illustrates a serious issue faced by the deaf community on a regular basis.
“I know it started with farts, but the real issue is that many of my students aren’t able to learn about these things at home or from their peers because they don’t have the same linguistic access. So many of my students don’t have families who can sign well enough to explain so many things it’s incredibly isolating for these kids.”
She hopes that more people will be inspired to learn sign language in the future, so that deaf and hard of hearing folks can feel more included by society as a whole.
“I would love to see a world where my students can learn about anything from anyone they interact with during their day. Whether that means learning about the solar system, the candy options at a store, or even farts, it would be so great for them to have that language access anywhere they go.”
Do you know sign language? Have you ever been interested to learn?
Consider this – you could be having hilariously amazing conversations like this every single day if you did!
