Re: discouraged - response to Kay

[Guest guest]

-

It sounds like is making great progress in his language development for his

age. My daughter's language was very delayed due to her hearing loss and late

intervention. However, my two sons (both hearing) had very different

development. My oldest was always very verbal and keyed into language. He

expressed a ton of words by 12-15 months. However, Maggie's twin brother was

very quiet. He obviously understood the language and would respond to

airplanes, dogs, babies, etc., but he really would not say many words until 2

years 4-5 months of age. It was frustrating, but the pediatrician assured me

that it was not uncommon and there was no need to worry...just to keep

communicating with him. It was hard not to worry, but he did learn to express

himself!

It sounds like you are doing a wonderful job with and are very aware of so

many things to do with him to make a language rich environment. He sounds like

a really smart little boy. I know that I felt that everything was more intense

with my first child...sometimes I wasn't even aware of how high my expectations

were as I wanted everything to be " normal " (or even better!). I've learned that

there is so much joy in experiencing each child as he or she is...that they each

have their challenges and strengths and their character grows as they meet those

challenges and develop their strengths.

Thinking of you-

Re: discouraged - response to Kay

In a message dated 12/15/2002 12:21:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,

kay@... writes:

> I have some thoughts about testing you can do at home to see if he's

> made any progress with the CI or not. For example, How is his sound

> awareness? Does he attend to voices? Can he tell when it's you talking

> versus someone else?

>

Yes, I would be interested in your " home tests " Actually, I know is

hearing with the CI. I don't know what he hears but he is able to respond

appropriately to requests or phrases we use. He did this with his hearing

aids too and I knew he didn't hear all the speech sounds, but he made sense

of whatever the input was.

To answer some of your questions...

Yes, he attends to voices. He consistently turns to his name or " no " or

" hey " or whatever attention getter you do. He can also recognize when I talk

or if it's someone else. As far as sound awareness... he will point to his

ear or make a screeching excited vocalization when he hears a dog barking in

the neighborhood, an airplane flying over the house (when we're in the

house), the baby crying, overhead announcements in a grocery store, cars

driving by in a parking lot, the microwave beeping, the cereal box shaking...

He is definately hearing things. I don't question that. I just wonder what

it sounds like. He can distinguish between the sounds as well. If he were

to hear the baby cry he would go to the baby's crib or chair. If he hears

the airplane outside he will make the " aaahhh " sound. He can even

distinguish song tunes. If you sing an elmo song he'll want to watch the TV.

If you sing itsy bitsy spider he'll do the hand motions. A lot of times I'm

impressed with what he does receptively. You know, it could be that I expect

too much too early. He does have some sounds like " E I E I O " with the " O "

kind of distorted for Old Macdonald's farm. He also does some other sounds

from songs and can sing in the same rythym and intonation.

Kearns

's Mom, 2 yrs, CI 7/30/02