Page 44 - Winter 2022

Hearing loss doesn’t deter athlete
By Justin Hubbard
Kelly Saxon cannot help but feel proud of how far her daughter has come.
Taylor Saxon, an eighth grader at Oconee County Middle School, is the middle child in the Saxon family. When Taylor was born, it was discovered she suffered from something no one else in her family history had: hearing loss.
Specifically, Taylor has a condition called sensorineural hearing loss due to damage within her inner ear. The condition affects both of Taylor’s ears.
“When [Taylor] was born, she failed her hearing test in the hospital,” Kelly said. “We have no hearing loss in our family, so I was extremely surprised ... We immediately followed up with doctor’s appointments after doctor’s appointments, and they all kept coming back that she had the hearing loss.”
Those doctor visits produced different opinions.
Some said Taylor needed cochlear implants while others believed hearing aids would provide Taylor a sufficient amount of hearing.
The Saxons decided to stick with hearing aids after they realized Taylor had some level of hearing when she got a little older. Taylor also wore glasses from a young age, so there was some difficulty keeping the hearing aids and glasses on her ears as a small child.
“It’s been a challenge,” Kelly said. “She has an older brother and a younger brother. When the younger brother was a baby, he was good about trying to pull [the hearing aids] out. We would try to make sure she wouldn’t leave them around or leave the batteries around. She also wore glasses, so that was always a struggle of how we’re going to do the glasses and hearing aids at the same time.”
Once she got used to the appropriate equipment, Taylor adjusted to her condition.
“As I got older, things were definitely different when moving grades or whenever different people would come into school if they hadn’t been around someone who was deaf,” Taylor said. “But once you start adjusting to the environment, it gets a lot easier.”
Taylor began competing in softball and basketball when she was 8 years old. Her venture into athletics presented new challenges with her hearing loss.
She wears hearing aids during basketball games but does not wear them during softball. Taylor said her coaches have adjusted alongside her, altering their approach to fit her needs when necessary.
“Whenever they're talking to me, they’re really close, and they use hand signals,” Taylor said. “In basketball, they talk
Saxon swings and connects on a pitch during one of her travel league softball games.
sJustin Hubbard is the sports editor for The Oconee Enterprise newspaper in Watkinsville, Ga. PAGE 42 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | WINTER 2022