JUNIOR, FRANCIS FAULKNER

francis faulkner

Francis Juniper was born a seemingly healthy baby to Professor Michael Faulkner and Dr. Naomi Ueda. Francis—Frankie as they quickly came to call her, was their second child together, both had children from separate previous marriages. Both Michael and Naomi considered themselves Deaf and apart of the Deaf community in their area, although Michael is profoundly Deaf while Naomi is moderately Deaf and uses hearing aids often. Two of Frankie’s older siblings are as profoundly Deaf like their father, the rest of the Faulkner-Ueda children (including Frankie) suffer to mild to no hearing loss.

However, during her infancy stage, Frankie was showing a lack of motor and speech development that was a cause for concern. A trip to a neurologist gave them a vague answer as to what was delaying little Frankie’s development and offered a few suggestions, one important one was to treat her like a normal child. And they did just that. Frankie grew up like any other normal kid, happy and spunky, minus a few hiccups here and there. She had weekly physical and speech therapy at school and had to wear leg braces for most of elementary school that led to teasing, but no biggie. Frankie was taught early in life that she was different, but it was a good thing. Naïve as that lesson was, she took it to heart and never let it go despite all the possible roadblocks she could hit. The girl kept her head up and a grin on. And if being positive didn’t help, she could always bite them—pinching is another favorable method.

Due to her parents’ often hectic schedules, they decided if their children went to a school with a dormitory to keep a routine schedule and interact with other people without them worrying. So here’s Frankie flying across campus without a care in the world.


- Stands at about 5’1” and weighs around 120 lbs.

- As a CODA (child of Deaf adults), Frankie’s first language is American Sign Language, and is the most comfortable signing with people even if the other person isn’t the most fluent. She can talk and sign at the same time, but depending on how excited/nervous she is the more likely she’ll mix up words.

- Frankie has partial hearing in her right ear, only enough to recognize certain pitches when the source is very close (like music from an earbud), so it’s best not to talk to her from the right side. She hears very well in her left ear, enough not to need an interpreter for classes. However, if she has something in her left ear or in a very noisy place, it’ll be unlikely for her to hear anything.

- Frankie has a type of neurological disorder that can fall into a myriad of diagnoses that had never been labeled. From her own knowledge it could possibly be a mild form of cerebral palsy or developmental coordination disorder, but she hasn’t really visited a neurologist for a long while to give it an actual name. Some of the symptoms that Frankie deals with are: poor fine motor skills (making small simple task like using scissors much trickier); weak gross motor skills which greatly affects her balance, timing, and grip when picking or holding things (do not throw things at her, she will drop them); and speech—making her have issues forming sounds correctly (sometimes slurring them together) and an increase production of drool. Frankie has been going to physical therapy to help manage her symptoms as well as she can.

- Due to her lack of balance and general clumsiness, Frankie has a habit of carrying a makeshift first aid kit.