Jared's school program

Monday was Jared's turn for the beloved school program. He did great considering he really does not like to get up in front of people.

I have been trying to upload a couple of videos, but so far no luck. I will keep work on it. Hopefully my computer will let me, until then, enjoy some pictures.

Spring Break

Last week was Jared and Allison's spring break, I know kind of early, but what can you do?

We finally took the kids to the indoor waterpark that we have been trying to get to since last summer. One thing or another always got in our way. Last summer was all of Allison's surgeries and then when we tried to go in Oct( even had the reservations and everything) I ruined it by having surgery for kidney stones.

We prayed really hard that nothing would happen, loaded up the van and headed out for the weekend. It was really fun, well for the kids anyway, mom and dad not so much. It is times like this that the full extent of Jared and Allison's hearing loss comes to light. One of us had to be with them at all times, making sure that they knew what the lifeguard was trying to tell them even if they could not hear them. There was many times that we had to point out our children and tell the lifeguard...."see that boy in the brown swim trunk and the girl in the purple bathing suit? Well they can't hear, so make sure you are looking at them when you are talking to them." Most of the lifeguards shook their heads at us and said "ok" like they knew what we were talking about, but then went right on blowing their whistles and expecting Jared and Allison to understand. Then there was Jordan, who is 3 going on 13. He thought he could do anything that his older brother and sister could do. Boy was that hard to explain that he had to stay in the smaller pool. At least it had water slides for younger kids, he didn't feel so left out.

All in all, it was a great weekend of making great memories together!

Sorry about the double picture....anyone care to share how to delete a picture once it has been published?

A note from the teacher

This is the kind of note that you want to get from your child's teacher. We are so pleased with how well Allison is finally doing with her new ear! :-)

Sorry about how the picture is, it is hard to copy green ink. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you will be able to read the note.

Allison's School Program 3/3/11

Last night was Allison's school program/open house. She did an amazing job( of course you would expect me to say that, right?)
It is moments like last night that we are truly thankful for the wonderful gift of Cochlear Implants. She sang right along with her hearing peers. She may not have gotten all of the words correct, but she sang!! There were a few tears shed by this proud mommy! I will never get tired of watching my daughter shine in life!
Oh, in case you don't know, Allison is on the top, white shirt, glasses, next to the 2 boys.

Nothing new to report

These are the moments as a parent of a child with a hearing loss that you dream about! When life is so normal that there is nothing new to write about, no appointments to the audiologist for new mappings of their CI, no weekly trips to the SLP or AV therapist because they are doing so well, of course with Jared and Allison being in school full time they get their therapy there. Even there, they are working on ordinary things, like writing sentences and putting thoughts on paper, not the 6 ling sounds. It is just an ordinary every day miracle of hearing kind of day and it is wonderful!
Allison's school program is on Thursday, I am sure there will be tears shed as I hear her sing her song with her classmates. I will post pictures and videos soon

IEP Report

This year Allison's SLP is really focusing on working with her on hearing with just her right implant only. This is the implant that has been given me sleepless nights( should we have done it, will she ever hear as well with this one as she does with her left one?)
We got her IEP progress report last week. I must admit I was kind of dreading reading this, but Allison surprised us with how well she is doing. Here is a recap of her progress

Goal 1: Using her right implant only, Allison will identify all six Ling sounds(o, oo, ee, s sh, m) by repeating them with 90% accuracy during 4 out of 5 opportunities.
Progress: She is 100% acc, with ah, ee, oo, m and 60% acc. with s verses sh

Goal 2: Using her right implant only, Allison will identify differences in vocal length( sentences, phrases and single words when presented with 2 picture paired with print choices with 90% accuracy during 4 out of 5 opportunities.
Progress: She is 100% acc. with 3 choices during 2 out of 5 opportunities.

Goal 3: Using her right implant only, Allison will identify differences in number of syllables in words( 1, 2 and 3 syllables) when presented with 2 pictures paired with print choices with 90% accuracy during 4 out of 5 opportunities.
Progress: She 100% acc. identifying between 1 and 2 syllables during 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Goal 4: Using her right implant only, Allison will identify among 2 monosyllabic words with different distinct vowel when presented with 2 pictures paired with print choices with 90% accuracy during 4 out of 5 opportunities.
Progress: Strong progress. Initially she was 50% accurate. Currently she is 90% to 100% accurate during 2 out of 5 opportunities.

Goal 5: Using her right implant only, Allison will identify among 2 monosyllabic words with different distinct initial position consonants when presented with 2 pictures paired with print choices with 90 % accuracy during 4 out of 5 opportunities.
Progress: She is 100% accurate during 2 out of 5 opportunities. Hearing differences between similar consonant sounds is difficult.

Based on her progress so far, Allison should be able to exceed these objectives. She will be given more advanced objectives as she masters these.


Way to hear Allison! Keep up the great work. We are so proud of you!!! Love, Mommy and Daddy

CI Mapping 1/18/11

I took Allison for a CI mapping of her right ear or as she likes to call it.....her "new" ear. This is the one that has been causing us so much frustration since she was implanted almost 3 years ago. This ear just never seemed to be doing as well as the 1st implant, at times we wondered if she would be able to get any noticeable gain with it or would she always have to rely on just her left CI. We mapped it, remapped it and still nothing worked. Maybe we just hit on the better ear the 1st time around and we would have to be happy with that. Allison was making wonderful progress with it, she was hearing at 15-20 dB across the frequency range and recognizing voices at 15 dB, she was reading above grade level and doing great in school. But there was that lingering question...what if the left CI failed at some point, she would be without sound until we could get if fixed. That was not acceptable, she had to start hearing with the right one. Finally, yesterday she heard the beeps in the sound booth at 15-20 dB and her voice recognition was at 45 dB. Now this is no where near where it needs to be for her to be able to make it with just her right CI, but by jolly it is progress. At least she is hearing and recognizing voices and not just beeps from a machine. They added new maps and we will keep bumping her up. Our goal is to get her as close to the left CI as possible......wish us luck.