Deaf Bunny: Helpful T-Shirts for Partially Deaf Kids

No thinking, caring individual would deliberately see a young child pushed out. Social exclusion is ugly in any situation, but when it applies to a toddler, then that becomes heart-breaking.

The trouble with deafness is that it's not immediately apparent at a glance. You might get the hint, if you witness individuals communicating in ASL. However the nuances can get lost, if your child is able to hear in certain environments, but not others.

Usually all it takes is for those in the vicinity to know what's required, and the world becomes much more deaf friendly, as if by magic. That's the first - and major - point of these informative Deaf Bunny t-shirts for partially deaf toddlers and young children.

The second is to head off frustration at the pass. Partially deaf and unilaterally deaf adults have to struggle to remain understanding and serene, while assaulted by noise that is naturally irritating and/or excluding. Young kids haven't yet acquired that learned capacity to not show their annoyance or distress.

It would be much better therefore not to put them in a position where their hearing causes them to feel so targeted. The Deaf Bunny kids' shirts include basic information on creating a deaf friendly environment.

All of the t-shirts on this page are available in a variety of styles from baby crawlers through to adult fashions. They are also fully customizable in terms of wording, color and illustrations.

Perhaps this is very Utopian of me, but it's definitely worth a try.

No-one is born an audist, any more than they enter the world as a racist, homophobe or any other unsavory member of society. Those are learned reactions, often as not to something deemed abnormal in their ignorant outlook.

So use these Deaf Bunny shirts as an early prompt to learn about deafness. Hopefully that will make it a normal thing to have awareness about alternative ways of hearing. Good parents will take their cue from the legend on the t-shirts, in order to educate their own little ones about the best ways in which to include their partially deaf playmate. From then on, nothing will seem strange about it at all.

Which is great, when you contemplate the life that your hard of hearing child will lead, growing up amongst these very same children.

A quick paragraph to make the basic points about creating a deaf friendly environment is fine. But only if you're educating people who only need the basics.

That pretty much covers kids and their guardians in a playground, but not in a place where prolonged presence means more has to occur.

The above shirts for deaf in one ear children may serve as gentle reminders for those already in the loop. But they could also act as the prompt for more in-depth conversations - with a parent or guardian - to more fully explore the needs of a single-sided deaf child.

Their beauty is that they don't let care-takers and other people off with a tiny check-list of the fundamentals. They won't be able to enact the bare minimum required to make your child's life easier, then think they've covered it all. Instead, less information renders it necessary for more detail to be discovered, leading to much, much more deaf awareness.

In theory, anyway.

Though modeled by adults, these ear illustrated shirts are available in all of the styles highlighted throughout this page (and more too!). Your single-sided deaf baby, toddler or child will be able to find one in their style, bearing an identical legend but fashioned to fit them.

And if clothing appears too much in the face of those looking on, then there are a range of buttons which may do the job too. Though naturally the sharp pin at the back may not be appropriate for babies and very young children.