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[Sofia Kolotourou] Hi! My name is Sofia and I want to tell you about post-linguistic deafness.

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When someone is born hearing normally, without any problem, s/he learns to speak.

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By the time s/he is 3, a kid has learned to speak very well.

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Therefore, if someone loses his/her hearing at the age of 3-4 or more, this means that by then s/he speaks normally.

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This is what is called post-linguistic deafness.

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People who are post-linguistic deaf speak almost naturally.

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Obviously, with the passing of years without hearing their own voice, they can't give proper rhythm to their speech,

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as other people do, so their speech sounds odd.

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Post-linguistic deaf people go to normal schools where they communicate with the other children by reading their lips.

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Most of them don't know sign language at all, as they don't need it to communicate.

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The present number of postlinguistic deaf people in Greece is unknown, because their are no records about them.

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Deaf people's organizations only address people who know sign language,

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and in practice, the needs of post-linguistic deaf people are not covered by any institution or other official authority.

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As people don't know about post-linguistic deafness, they are surprised when they meet a deaf person who speaks

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and they are very baffled because they think that the person in front of them "cannot" be deaf, as s/he speaks.

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Therefore post-linguistic deaf people are doubly excluded because on the one hand,

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hearing people find it hard to accept them in their group, because they don't know how to communicate with them.

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And on the other hand, deaf people who only communicate in sign language claim that they are the only "real deaf"

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and that post-linguistic deaf people "should" learn sign language

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and stop communicating in the only way they learned as children, i.e. with their mouth!

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For the post-linguistic deaf, the presence of an interpreter is meaningless, because they don't know sign language.

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They want other things: In spoken language, they want the speaker to enunciate slightly more slowly and clearly than usually.

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They need good light so that they can read his/her lips. And where this is feasible,

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they want speeches to be distributed in writing, e.g. in meetings, presentations, discussions, as well as in theaters.

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Moreover, it is very easy to distribute written texts, as they are all computer-written and can be printed by pressing a key.

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A year ago, the post-linguistic deaf became organized in a facebook groub called "Κουφοχωριό" (Deaf Village)

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This group does not exclude the participation of pro-linguistic deaf people, and it encourages the participation of people with cochlear implants.

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Cochlear implants are acoustic devices that are surgically inserted.

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Children who get a cochlear implant when they are very small are very likely to develop

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language and speech, and to speak exactly like the post-linguistic deaf (they even often speak on the phone)

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It's time that people should learn about post-linguistic deafness and the swift development of cochlear implants.

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The image of deafness is changing in the 21st century, and is very different from the stereotypes in our barins.

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My name is Sofia, I'm 39, I'm a cytologist physician and writer, and I have been post-linguistically deaf since I wa very younf.

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In 2010, I wrote the book «Κουφός είσαι ρε; Δεν ακούς» ("Are you deaf or what? Can't you hear?") published by KaPsiMi, where I speak about events in my life that are related to post-linguistic deafness.

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In 2011 I created the Facebook group Κουφοχωριό (Deaf Village) for the above-mentioned reasons, as well as, recently, a forum with the same name.

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Write "Κουφοχωριό" in Google and come and find us to learn more about post-linguistic deafness

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but also about the developments in cochlear implants and auxiliary technology.

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Via the internet and medical progress, we deaf people can communicate successfully too, without intermediaries.

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Deafness does not mean isolation, as it used to. Come and find us in order to learn what deafness means in the 21st century.

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Thank you very much.