Each May, Better Hearing & Speech Month (BHSM) is an annual event promoted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to raise awareness about communication disorders. For 2019, their theme is \u201cCommunication Across the Lifespan.\u201d. We hope this inspiring story of the local rising baseball star Danton Hyman will inspire you to take care of your hearing health this month.<\/p>
Danton Hyman is Newberry\u2019s first-ever South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year.<\/p>
Managing to score 176 runs (which was the second-most in Newberry history), he has recorded 266 hits and stolen 63 in his college career. These are the most among any currently active NCAA Division II player. This season, Hyman\u2019s 85 hits are the most by any college player currently playing in the US, regardless of division. He\u2019s the most important player of the SAC champs, a team ranked in the Division II\u2019s top 10 since the beginning of April.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best players in the nation,\u201d fellow teammate Zane Tarrance claims. The praise doesn\u2019t stop with his teammates. According to Newberry head coach Russell Triplett, He is someone who has that \u201cunique ability to allow people around him to play at a higher level than they\u2019re capable of.\u201d.<\/p>
What people don\u2019t mention as much the fact that he has hearing loss, and has been wearing hearing aids since he was an infant.<\/p>
Danton Hyman has had about 30% hearing in both ears since the age of 2. Back then, new-born screenings for hearing loss weren\u2019t mandatory, so his parents didn\u2019t discover anything was wrong until a report from the day-care center mentioned that he didn\u2019t always respond to his name being called. It transpired that the partial hearing loss came from the father\u2019s side.<\/p>
Now a celebrated local college baseball star, his work extends far beyond the baseball field. As his mother is an elementary school teacher at the school he went to, he often gives talks there to students, inspiring others to do their best and follow their dreams.<\/p>
Recently, a fifth-grade girl there was struggling to summon the confidence to wear her hearing aids. The girl, normally shy and unwilling to talk to most people, saw common ground with Danton and opened up about her difficulties to him.<\/p>
\u201cShe was going through a stage where she was maturing, she\u2019s growing up, she\u2019s about to go into middle school,\u201d Danton said. \u201cShe came and she wouldn\u2019t wear her hearing aids. She\u2019s scared people will judge her when she puts them in her ears. And I kind of basically told her, \u2018When you wear your hair down, nobody can see them. Nobody will even know.\u2019 \u2026 You gotta put it in perspective the way they will feel comfortable. And that\u2019s the thing. I\u2019ve been around it for so long, I\u2019m cool with it.\u201d.<\/p>
Danton\u2019s mother has confirmed that his encouraging words have had the desired effect: \u201cShe wears her hearing aids now,\u201d She said. \u201cI\u2019ll pass her in the hall and I\u2019ll say, \u2018Good for you!\u2019\u201d<\/p>
Hyman is unsure of how long he will be playing baseball. For now, he is content to play for the fun of it as he continues to study for his accounting degree. If a there is a chance to go professional, he might explore it. But he knows one thing for sure. The challenges to succeed as a person with hearing loss will always be there, and as long as he is wearing his hearing aids, he will always be up to the task.<\/p>
Hearing loss is a communication disorder and can have a far-reaching consequence on an individuals mental and physical health, leading to a reduction in their quality of life. Wearing hearing aids can have a positive effect on spoken communication and maintaining relationships with friends, family and loved ones. Despite these benefits, it often takes ten years before an individual seeks treatment. This May, why not celebrate Better Speech and Hearing Month with us at Elevate Audiology? Don\u2019t let the threat of hearing loss undermine the connections you have built have with those you love.\u00a0Schedule a consultation with Elevate Audiology today.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Each May, Better Hearing & Speech Month (BHSM) is an annual event promoted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to raise awareness about communication disorders. For 2019, their theme is \u201cCommunication Across the Lifespan.\u201d. We hope this inspiring story of the local rising baseball star Danton Hyman will inspire you to take care of your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","schema":"","fname":"","lname":"","position":"","credentials":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hearing-aids","category-hearing-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevateaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}