Reflect on your experience of your environment? What do you notice? What are you missing? What differs from your normal experience? How difficult/comfortable is it? (500 word journal entry on sensory deprivation task )
For the sensory deprivation task, I had volunteered to cover my ears with the plugs and sit in a history class. Before starting this task, I thought that it would be easy for me as I have my sight and will be able to interpret easily what everyone was trying to say. Even in daily life, I get extremely uncomfortable when I have to close my eyes, however being deprived of sound has never had a huge impact because I feel quite dependent on the sense of vision.
When I started, I was comfortable as I could understand what Mr. Neighbour was saying because he was pointing at a question on a piece of paper and the class nodded. When he wrote the question on the board, I knew that it was being discussed. The problems started when the hands started going up and everyone started answering questions. I could see a few of them pointing at the paper and discussing something important but I could not make out what they were telling. Everything around me was just so silent.I thought that Mr. Neighbour might write those answers down on the white board, but for the next ten minutes he wrote nothing, and with hindsight there was just the question on the board for the whole lesson. I could see the hand movements when people were explaining, but they are not meant to depict any answer they were helping them with articulation. However, I could not gather any answer out of the 5 lying in front of me. As I myself, did not the answer to those questions because I had not studied the topic before, I felt extremely anxious and uncomfortable as I was not getting any answer. Such a situation, put me in a difficult and different situation because it was challenging to learn without hearing and I realised how much we depend for learning on our auditory senses. When I did "What type of a learner are you" tests in the beginning of the school year, the results were all showing that I am an auditory learner. This added to the challenge because I could not learn and when Mr. Neighbour looked at me questioningly, I thought that he asked me a question. My friends were beside me and tried to explain but it was difficult to follow their swift mouthing. I kept saying 'slow down' so that I could *guess* what they were trying to say. If it would be written about what is being discussed, then it would be much easier but I would have to adapt myself, with difficulty, to become a visual learner.
For any person, if they are auditory learners and they have lost the sense then it would make it near to impossible for them to learn and acquire the knowledge needed. Coming back to the feeling of complete silence, I felt at peace but uncomfortable (two conflicted feelings) - a silent torture- because I am not used to a place without any sort of commotion. I am also someone who listens to a lot of music. With the passing time, it has unfortunately turned into an addiction of putting on the headphones. Being deaf would disable me from listening to music which would be unbearable. You cannot see and listen to music.
All emotions of uncomfortable anxiety and confusion flooded my mind and that stopped me from thinking about the mouthing and making sense out of it. The moment I took my plugs out, I could hear people and it calmed me down so much and with that sigh I realised that I had underestimated the need of a well working auditory sense.
For the sensory deprivation task, I had volunteered to cover my ears with the plugs and sit in a history class. Before starting this task, I thought that it would be easy for me as I have my sight and will be able to interpret easily what everyone was trying to say. Even in daily life, I get extremely uncomfortable when I have to close my eyes, however being deprived of sound has never had a huge impact because I feel quite dependent on the sense of vision.
When I started, I was comfortable as I could understand what Mr. Neighbour was saying because he was pointing at a question on a piece of paper and the class nodded. When he wrote the question on the board, I knew that it was being discussed. The problems started when the hands started going up and everyone started answering questions. I could see a few of them pointing at the paper and discussing something important but I could not make out what they were telling. Everything around me was just so silent.I thought that Mr. Neighbour might write those answers down on the white board, but for the next ten minutes he wrote nothing, and with hindsight there was just the question on the board for the whole lesson. I could see the hand movements when people were explaining, but they are not meant to depict any answer they were helping them with articulation. However, I could not gather any answer out of the 5 lying in front of me. As I myself, did not the answer to those questions because I had not studied the topic before, I felt extremely anxious and uncomfortable as I was not getting any answer. Such a situation, put me in a difficult and different situation because it was challenging to learn without hearing and I realised how much we depend for learning on our auditory senses. When I did "What type of a learner are you" tests in the beginning of the school year, the results were all showing that I am an auditory learner. This added to the challenge because I could not learn and when Mr. Neighbour looked at me questioningly, I thought that he asked me a question. My friends were beside me and tried to explain but it was difficult to follow their swift mouthing. I kept saying 'slow down' so that I could *guess* what they were trying to say. If it would be written about what is being discussed, then it would be much easier but I would have to adapt myself, with difficulty, to become a visual learner.
For any person, if they are auditory learners and they have lost the sense then it would make it near to impossible for them to learn and acquire the knowledge needed. Coming back to the feeling of complete silence, I felt at peace but uncomfortable (two conflicted feelings) - a silent torture- because I am not used to a place without any sort of commotion. I am also someone who listens to a lot of music. With the passing time, it has unfortunately turned into an addiction of putting on the headphones. Being deaf would disable me from listening to music which would be unbearable. You cannot see and listen to music.
All emotions of uncomfortable anxiety and confusion flooded my mind and that stopped me from thinking about the mouthing and making sense out of it. The moment I took my plugs out, I could hear people and it calmed me down so much and with that sigh I realised that I had underestimated the need of a well working auditory sense.
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