For many children, the outdoors is a happy place that offers release but for deaf children like Ruby Jennings it can feel a lot more daunting.
Ruby, 12, was given a cochlear implant when she was just three years old which has restored some of her hearing ability but in situations with lots of background noise such as a busy road, it becomes difficult to concentrate.
Her mum Debbie calls the outdoor environment 'a nightmare' for her daughter and worries about noise including wind, cars, people talking loudly and the birds.
When crossing the road, Ruby says: "I have to ask my friends to help me."
Deaf Awareness Week, which runs from May 3 to May 9, aims to promote the positive aspects of living with deafness and raise awareness of the challenges people can face and the importance of social inclusion. As part of the campaign, Ruby and Debbie spoke to The Mirror about their experiences.
Debbie, from Hertfordshire, noticed her daughter’s hearing loss at around 11 to 12 months old when it became apparent that her speech wasn’t developing at the same pace as other children her age.
"We did a test at home with her favourite TV programme," said Debbie. "We turned her away and had it on really loud and had no reaction but when I turned her around, she went mad."
The test prompted the family to visit an NHS GP who Debbie says dismissed her concerns based on the results of a newborn hearing test and says she was branded an overprotective first-time mum.
Still worried, the family arranged a private appointment at the Portland Hospital in London.
"It was the day before Christmas Eve and he told us there and then that she was profoundly deaf. His words to us were that if an aeroplane took off next to her, she wouldn’t hear it.
"The first few months were difficult, we found it very hard to accept but after that, it is basically doing what we can to help her and trying to get her to lead as much a normal life as possible."
Ruby used hearing aids until she received the implant. She also continues to rely on lip-reading as part of her communication but mask-wearing due to the pandemic has made this difficult.
Ruby said: "When I’m trying to talk to my friends, sometimes I can’t understand them because I can’t see what they’re saying."
Non-fabric masks are unhelpful too as Ruby notes that the see-through plastic variety steam up which makes lip reading difficult.
Mum-of-four Debbie said: "She’s got cochlear implants that sit on her ears, then she wears glasses. To have a mask behind her ears as well, it gets tangled up, it gets stuck behind her implant. It pulls her implant off her ears, it’s a bit of a pain for her."
Now a pupil in Year 7, Ruby and her mum are adjusting to the challenges that secondary school brings.
Ruby had the chance to attend a specialist deaf senior school but opted for a mainstream school in the local area as she wanted to attend with everyone else.
"Primary was easier because I had quite a few teaching assistants to help," Ruby said.
Debbie adds: "At primary school, I had a base to go in and leave things. At secondary school, it’s down to her. She has to be a lot more independent."
Ruby has to remember to charge her implant and to carry spare batteries. The microphone that her teachers wear to help her hear must be cleaned after every use, and Ruby has to remember to collect to then take it to her next class.
Classmates asked questions about her hearing loss when she first joined the school, but Ruby says they’re used to it now.
She's happy to answer questions and to spread awareness, and she volunteered to share her experiences with classmates in a science class, which she says is her favourite school subject.
She said: "I’ve told my science teacher about my hearing aids and he said that they are really cool.
"He asked me to find a video of how my implant hears sound. I sent it to him and I’m going to show all of my friends how I hear with my implants."
Ruby described wearing cochlear implants as tiring and explained that she enjoys taking breaks from them. She said: "I might sound selfish, when I’m at school, sometimes when I take my ears off, I just feel so much better."
Debbie added that Ruby often takes an hour break from the implants in the bath and noted that the exhaustion caused by the intensity of the implants has caused Ruby to fall asleep at 5pm in the afternoon.
"I think people think once they’ve got a cochlear implant that they hear as we do. It’s so different. It sounds like a robot, it’s so difficult to work out what people are saying.
"It’s like being in a nightclub when someone’s shouting at you to try and talk to you, that’s the only way I can describe it. That’s how she feels."
Ruby says that she enjoys shopping, going to the park with her friends and is a huge fan of the Vampire Diaries series.
Mum Debbie hopes people will be more understanding of deaf people. "A lot of people take deaf people for being really rude and obnoxious," she said. "When actually it’s just because they don’t hear you. They just find social situations so difficult."
Deaf awareness week runs from Monday, May 3, to Sunday, May 9.
