I stumbled upon a snippet about Courtney Cannon in our high school alumni magazine a few months ago. I learned alumna Courtney became deaf at a very young age, powering through 18 years of speech therapy.
She returned to our high school in 2017 to teach American Sign Language as an elective. Not only that, but she and her husband taught their children American Sign Language as their first language!
I was so inspired after reading Courtney’s story that I wanted to learn more. Courtney shared her journey, taking us through her school years, strengthening her speech, and teaching American Sign Language.
Courtney’s Childhood
Courtney developed spinal meningitis when she was a baby. Spinal meningitis usually develops from an ear or sinus infection. Bacteria affects the brain and spinal cord, which may later cause complications.
Unfortunately, spinal meningitis affected Courtney’s hearing, and she became deaf at 3 months old. Her mom came to the heartbreaking realization that Courtney couldn’t hear when she tried speaking to her.
Her mom said good morning to her, but Courtney didn’t respond. She picked up pots and pans, banging them together behind Courtney, hoping she would hear the sounds, but Courtney still didn’t respond. Courtney said it was really tough on her mom when she was younger.
As she grew older, they worked together to teach Courtney how to speak and how to read. Courtney is the oldest of four children, growing up with three brothers.
Her mom got creative in teaching her how to read by identifying household items.
“She’s the best,” Courtney says. “She figured out how to put notecards and to leave them all around the house.”
Learning to Speak
Courtney explained there are different levels of deafness such as mild, moderate, profound. She is considered profoundly deaf, which means she cannot hear anything at all even at the highest volume.
However, Courtney was incredibly dedicated to speech therapy. She spent 18 years mastering lip-reading, speaking, and communicating. She ran through exercises with her mom, practicing words and listening.
It wasn’t always easy – Courtney recalls a moment when her mom asked her to “close the drapes,” but Courtney went into the fridge and took out grapes. It turns out that “drapes” and “grapes” look very similar when reading lips.
Courtney improved over time by practicing with speech therapists. “They had to teach me how to speak by touch,” Courtney said.
Courtney’s speech therapists showed her where sounds come from, where her tongue should be placed in her mouth when she speaks, and how to make sounds.
They stressed the importance of speaking with inflection to improve her speech. As an exercise, Courtney had to find the courage to go out and ask for things in public. She says she wasn’t too happy with her therapists at that time since the task was out of her comfort zone, but now she loves them for it.
Staying Motivated Throughout Speech Therapy
Courtney was very dedicated, but she feels speech therapy took away some of her childhood. She had to focus, practice, and work hard to get to where she is today.
“It was very time-consuming because I had to go to a lot of speech therapy,” Courtney said.
She credits her motivation to her mom. “She made me practice. I didn’t want to practice because I was a kid, and I wanted to play outside with other kids.”
Throughout elementary and middle school, Courtney didn’t want to go to speech therapy, but her mom always drove her to the appointments to practice.
“I didn’t have any motivation at that time because I just wanted to be a kid and play sports, having fun with my friends,” Courtney told me. “Looking back now, I’m really thankful that my mom was my motivation to keep going.”
Getting Involved with School Sports
Courtney loved playing sports in high school. She played soccer, basketball, volleyball and swimming. “That helped me develop,” she said.
She played defense in soccer, her favorite sport. Courtney says it was easy for her to see what was going on and defend the field.
Swimming was her second favorite sport. These activities helped Courtney stay active and have fun. She told me she wanted to play sports so much more than practice speech therapy.
Courtney met a small group of focused friends by playing sports at a smaller high school.
Keep in mind, phones weren’t around during Courtney’s school days, so she wasn’t able to communicate in text messages like we can today. “My technology support was the people.”
At that time, beepers helped translate the call to a text so Courtney would know where to meet her friends when there weren’t cell phones.
She got her first phone when she was 26 years old. “It helps a lot because I’m able to reach out to more people.”
Hearing with a Cochlear Implant
There’s one piece of technology that helps Courtney hear some sounds – a cochlear implant. The cochlear implant sends sound signals to the brain using electrodes.
“It’s like a computer that processes the sounds to the sounds that my brain will understand,” Courtney says.
An otologist surgically plants the technology in the head to send signals to the brain, providing patients with an outer piece to wear on the ear. If Courtney’s not wearing the outer piece, then she can’t hear anything.
She received her first cochlear implant on the left side of her head when she was 7 years old. She got a second implant on the right side at 11 years old as technology advanced.
As the years went on, the implant on the right side of her head needed to be repaired. She got it repaired a few months ago since there was an internal failure. “I was deaf, I couldn’t hear anything.”
Technology improved since Courtney’s first cochlear implant. She compares the implants to different versions of America Online.
She pointed to the left implant: “This is AOL 1.0.” She pointed to the right implant: “This is AOL 2,000!”
Traveling and Finding Community
Courtney continued going to speech therapy in high school, and eventually stopped once she attended college. After college, she says going out and interacting with other people became her real-world speech therapy.
She moved to Washington, D.C. where she became more comfortable with who she was and learned about the Deaf community. The community taught her how to pick up American Sign Language, which gave her more variety in communication.
“I learned how to be professional right after college,” Courtney said. “I did everything on my own. I had to figure it out myself.”
She moved around for awhile, from working in Philadelphia to working with AmeriCorps in California. She met her now-husband Bryan while earning her Master’s degree in St. Louis in 2006.
Bryan was familiar with the Deaf culture since he took a class, and his best friend in college was deaf. A mutual friend introduced the two.
“I said, whatever, because I was in school, I worked too far, and I don’t have time,” Courtney joked. They’ll be married 10 years this summer, and they have three sons: Connor, Samuel, and John Thomas.
Courtney and Bryan taught their children American Sign Language as their first language. She says she speaks English with them more than signing, but they’ll always have that knowledge of the language.
Teaching American Sign Language
Courtney and Bryan moved to Florida after having their second child, which led Courtney to find a job through her professional connections. She landed a teaching job at United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida (UCP), working with students with disabilities.
Shortly after, a faculty member of our high school told Courtney the school was looking for an American Sign Language instructor. The teacher asked Courtney if she would be interested in applying for the position. “Of course!” Courtney responded.
Courtney is coming up on her one-year teaching anniversary. She teaches 12 students in her largest class, and she teaches 9 students in her smallest class. The smaller class sizes allow more engaged learning.
“I think it’s a better experience with practicing,” Courtney said.
One of Courtney’s proudest teaching moments was when her students created a video signing an entire book in American Sign Language. She gave the book to UCP as teaching material for their classrooms.
“They’re trying to have purpose, to learn sign language, to get them motivated. I’m proud that they’re learning sign language.”
Courtney keeps students engaged with different classroom activities. A guest recently demonstrated a video phone that allows a Deaf user to make a phone call by signing to an interpreter. She says her students loved that experience.
“I’m proud to make my classroom a home, a safe place for them to be themselves in a respectful way.”
Faith and prayer led her to her family, her jobs, and moving through transitions. When I asked her where she sees herself in a year, Courtney smiled and said she sees herself teaching, and, “We’ll see what God says.”
Great article, very touching; she has such a beautiful family too.
Thanks, Melissa. Courtney has a wonderful story, and I agree – a beautiful family! 🙂