Rose Ayling-Ellis health: The star’s ‘hardest challenge’ due to condition – symptoms
Strictly’s Giovanni Pernice serenades Rose Ayling-Ellis
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Due to her condition, Rose has also spoken out about the challenges that the Covid pandemic has put in her way. The young actress who plays Frankie Carter in BBC’s EastEnders has been deaf since she was a child and has learned to communicate best through a mixture of oral English and British Sign Language (BSL). The star also wears in-ear hearing aids to help her further. But since the start of the pandemic, one resource that Rose, like many deaf people relied on has disappeared, creating new struggles in communication.
In multiple social media clips, Rose is seen lip reading with partner Giovanni, something that increasingly helped her when her hearing aids broke in preparation for the last Strictly live show.
The star, who was left completely deaf explained that broken hearing aids is quite a common occurrence for deaf people, but still had to wait for the NHS to deliver replacements before she could properly throw herself back into dance training.
Recently Rose has also said that she has found it “quite hard” to understand her EastEnders co-stars at times, as mask wearing eliminates the possibility of lip reading.
She said: “The hardest challenge for me is the COVID pandemic.
“Everyone is wearing masks, everyone is social distanced.
“So, before people wouldn’t wear their masks and they would come up close to me so I can see their face and lip read.
“But now everyone is wearing masks and staying well away, so I can’t understand everyone. So it’s quite hard.”
In order to try and curb these issues Rose has an interpreter with her at “all times”, which includes on the Strictly set.
Some of the cast and crew have also been able to learn some sign language, which Rose admits has “really helped a lot”.
She added: “luckily everyone here is very, very nice, and they adapt to what I need.
“I have an interpreter with me at all times, so they translate anything.
“But sometimes when she’s not there, the cast take their masks off and keep their distance from me.
“And now they’re picking up signing and learning some bits.
“They’re becoming a bit more dextrous, more expression. And that’s really, really helped a lot.
“Everyone is really nice and opened minded and trying their hardest. It helps a lot.”
Although the Covid pandemic has heightened the awareness of communication difficulties, this is something that deaf people have struggled with even before Covid hit.
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Hearing Dogs provide seven top tips to keep in mind when communicating with deaf people:
- Always face a deaf person. Make eye contact and keep it while you are talking. Try not to look away or cover your mouth as many deaf people rely on lip reading to help them understand you.
- Check noise and lighting. Turn off or move away from background noise. Make sure your face is not in shadow and there are no strong lights or sunshine in their eyes.
- Keep your distance. Stand a metre or two away from the deaf person. This is important for hearing-aid users, lip-readers and signers.
- Speak clearly, slowly and steadily. Don’t mumble, shout or exaggerate – it distorts your lip patterns.
- Take turns. If there is more than one person in a conversation, take turns to talk.
- Repeat and re-phrase if necessary. Trying to say the same thing in a different way might help.
- Write it down. Don’t be afraid to write or draw to help understanding.
People can either experience partial, total, sudden, gradual, permanent or temporary hearing loss.
Age-related hearing loss affects one in three people by the age of 65 which can be extremely isolating and frustrating for those who suffer from it.
The NHS explains that the first signs of hearing loss include having to turn the TV or music up higher than usual, asking people to repeat themselves, finding it hard to keep up a conversation and misunderstanding people frequently.
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