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.

Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas......Before

Christmas........After

Christmas Card for next year????

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.........

Christmas 2010

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".

Fall Fun 2010

Trick or Treat!

Did anyone else notice?

While Allison was flipping through the Toy-R-Us Big Book( pointing and saying...."I want that for Christmas") she noticed one boy wearing a hearing aid and another boy wearing a cochlear implant. She said, "Mom, look that boy has a hearing aid like Jared and that one is wearing a CI". There was also a boy or girl( I don't remember which) that had Down Syndrome. It is so great that our kids are seeing children just like them in magazines and advertisements.

Kudos to Toys R Us!!

IEP Meetings

It's that time of year again, the annual IEP meeting. Last Wed, we had Jared and Allison's. Let me just say that I love the team that is working with our kids. Everyone is so great and really cares about what it is going to take to make sure that Jared and Allison are reaching their full potential.
Here are some of the highlights from the meeting.

Jared- His teacher reports that he is creative and has very good ideas. He is well liked by his peers and interacts with friends throughout the day.( yep, he is very social) He is a pleasure to have in school.( now what parent would not want to hear that?) Jared is currently reading at an Independent Developmental Reading Assessment Level 24, which is the end of second grade, so he is reading at grade level, seeing how he just started 3rd grade. On the Stanford Achievement Test, Jared scored a 571 in the area of reading vocabulary, this means that he scored the same or better than 75-80% of his hearing impaired peers. In the area of reading comprehension, he scored a 598, which means that he scored the same or better than 85-90% of his hearing impaired peers. We are pretty pleased with this. We are looking forward to getting Jared's new hearing aids, we are excited to see how they improve Jared's ability to focus and staying on task. He is struggling with hearing his peers in the classroom, so he tends to let his mind drift off when he should be paying attention.

Allison-Her teacher reports that she is a great reader. She is becoming more fluent when reading and also doing better at keeping up with her work. Allison is reading at an Independent Developmental Reading Assessment level 28, this is above grade level. Second grade students are expected to be reading at a DRA level 20 by the end of the 1st grading period.( you go, girl!!) Allison can also read 193/200 k-2 grade sight words. All I have to say about this is......pretty good for a deaf girl. ;-) and once again, THANK YOU COCHLEAR IMPLANTS!!!! There are no goals on her IEP for reading because she is doing so well.
Allison is going to be spending time working on her spelling and writing skills this year.