Chance is playing basketball now and enjoying it very much. His coach is the same guy that coached his baseball team this past summer. He is really a good guy who helps the kids to have fun and does not get overly stressed about the game. He knows Chance and will repeat things if Chance misses anything etc.
Basketball is probably the hardest sport for Chance to hear in so far besides swimming. The ball is always smacking against a hard gym floor creating noise, there are kids running all over the court creating noise, and a gym just echoes and the sound bounces off all of the walls like crazy. Chance does really well and he is a good little hustler and loves to play, he just can not hear you many times if you call out to him while he is on the court.
The kids are all given colored wristbands that correspond to a wristband to a kid on the opposite team. You guard the child who has the same wristband color as you do. Chance is usually good about guarding his man, but during one point in the game, he was letting his man go unguarded. I called out by habit to tell Chance to guard his man, but soon realized that Chance could not hear me. His coach tried telling him to guard too, but unless Chance looks at you, you may not be heard.
I talked to the coach after the game and asked if he wanted my husband or I to sit over by the bench during the games and help him out when he needed to get Chance's attention. He said that it was fine and not a big problem. Chance will have to learn to look over at his coach every so often to see if he is telling him something. When you are in the heat of the game, this will not be easy.
Another option is, we get an FM system consisting of a receiver that attaches to the bottom of Chance's implant, and a microphone that we or the coach could wear. Then Chance would be hearing us if we were right by him. These systems are used to help deaf people in school, church, or any other setting when they need to hear in noisy or crowded environments. The cost is about $4000.00 from what we understand. So Chance will not be using one of these systems this year:)
Chance is a little trooper and just goes on with his life undaunted by the mere fact that he is deaf. We'll have to see what we can work out for basketball in the future. Maybe we can ask deaf adults who play what they do to keep in touch with the coach.
1 comment:
I use to play basketball all the time when I was younger and it was not with people my size, much taller. I had to learn to look everywhere at once. It took a while to learn. The only problem I had with FM system is that they cut out the background noise. Then again with the FM system, the last time I use it was 20 some odd years ago :)
The school is legally bound by law to purchase a FM system for Chance if requested. It is not something that you purchase, the school does. I believe Ebay has them a wee bit cheaper too.
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