Students Have Their Say

Hearing is hard when everyone’s wearing a mask!

Our Outpost students were asked a series of questions around mandatory mask wearing and gave their honest opinion about what they thought.

Read what they have to say on the topic below, before mask wearing rules were eased in most locations around Perth.

Our Students

Q. Why is it hard when all my friends wear a mask?

Aria: It is hard for me because all I can hear is mumbling sounds and I just can’t hear my friends or people properly.

Amelie: Because it just sounds like everyone is mumbling to me.

Austin: Because it sounds like they are mumbling and I can't hear the words that are coming out of their mouth.

Q. How do I feel about everyone wearing masks?

Aria: I feel very uncomfortable, and I feel anxious and I just feel like I am the only person that can’t understand what is going on.

Amelie: I feel like it’s a real shame that children have to wear a mask every single day especially in class. It hurts double for me because the mask string is going behind my ear where my hearing aids are. It feels just disgusting because I feel like there is no point of them.

Austin: It feels weird because it is hard to hear everyone. It makes it feel like the whole world is turned over. It is an underworld. An underworld is the world where nobody can hear properly.

Q. How can people help make this experience easier for me?

Aria: People can just pull their masks down when they are speaking to me so that I can understand.

Amelie: I could ask my friends to pull down their masks so that I can understand them better.

Austin: People can just pull their masks down when they are speaking to me so that I can understand. Or it would be good to have a mask where there is a little hole inside.

Q. How can my classroom better understand me?

Aria: We can try and make other children understand by putting them in your shoes. We can do an activity where they all have to cover their ears tight and try and listen to the teacher with a mask on. This will then allow them to understand how tricky it can get.

Amelie: Just have me or someone explain to the class that it is hard for me because of my hearing loss. If everyone knew about it, then it would be easier for me.

Austin: By talking to my friends about how I feel, by making a PowerPoint presentation.

The Story of King Austin

Comic transcript by Austin, Year 5

I woke up in the morning and everything seemed fine. I  went to eat my Royal breakfast but then my assistant Mr Koala delivered some terrible news.

“Excuse me Mr King Austin, could you put your hearing aids in, because I got an email from your school.”

“The email said that with the Corona Virus spreading you and all of your friends will need to wear a mask forever and ever and ever….”

I screamed like a baby, “WHHHHHATTTTTT! How will I understand all of my friends?”

I feel like my whole world has turned upside down. I walked into school with a heavy heart.

I was talking to my friends but all I could hear was chit chat “blllllzzzzxxxxxwwww?”

It felt like all my friends were aliens, so I carefully asked with shaky hands, “Could you please take your masks off because you sound like a mumbly chatterbox?”

They said, “Of course we can, you should have said in the first place.”

Then my friends took off their masks and they weren’t mumbly chatterboxes.

I just had a royal idea… Why don’t I make a PowerPoint to show my whole class how to make a mask with a clear hole in it.

I showed everyone in class the PowerPoint and then all the people around me wore a mask with a big clear hole in it.

I felt much better this way because I can see everyone’s faces again.

My heart felt light again and my assistant Mr Koala heard me yell “WOOOHOO” and we danced together!

Does your child or family need extra support at this time?

Psychology support is available to all families at Telethon Speech & Hearing. Please contact our program Psychologists directly for a confidential discussion. You may also like to discuss your situation with your child’s teacher or therapist to decide whether accessing psychology services jointly would make sense for you. This may be especially helpful when the child is experiencing difficulties across home and school environments.

Chatterbox Psychologist
Nerida Beaumont
nbeaumont@tsh.org.au

Outpost Psychologist
Marie Limb
mlimb@tsh.org.au

Talkabout Psychologist
Jessica Yegorov
jyegorov@tsh.org.au

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© 2022 Telethon Speech & Hearing Ltd.

Telethon Speech & Hearing acknowledges and thanks all individuals and organisations for their support of our centre, including: Channel 7 Telethon Trust, Channel 7 and The West Australian

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