This is just a short note of something that made me smile. In music class Peter stole all of my sticks we were supposed to be using to produce different sounds. Instead he proceeds to make a square with the sticks on the floor, then tell me it's a bath, then pretend to wash his foot in it.
Yes, it was cute. Yes, he wasn't doing what the rest of the class was doing. But, to create an image in one's head and then a representation in reality, and communicate what is being represented, all of that requires the brain to plan, remember, and execute. All of that requires higher thinking skills that go beyond echoing a sentence, all of that requires that a brain have language. So this little action made me smile and showed me there is plenty going on in that head.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Transition to IEP, or what on earth will I do?
We have officially started the process of moving from county services to school district services. The process starts at a child's age of about 2.5years, and is complete by age 3. I have had a pretty clear mental map of the last two years. I had my binge of research when Peter was first identified as profoundly deaf, and plotted our path through hearing aids, CI surgery, and the first year of hearing. I had decided that the best option was to send Peter to a specialized school two days a week for at least two years. I never planned beyond that because I didn't know where Peter would be with his language.
Now I have to figure out what happens next. All this talk of IEP teams, and decisions, and what qualifies and what doesn't qualify for services. What do I want? What will the district offer? Will I even want what they offer?
My home school district is small. They have managed their budgets as well as could be expected with the state funding cuts over the last few years, but when they don't have the money to pay for classrooms to be cleaned every night I don't think they have oodles of money to spare. So how will money affect decision-making? Their SLP is very nice, but has only worked with one CI kid, and that was more than eight years ago. How will that play into things? I want to visit the public options for deaf preschools, and they would be less of a commute, but what if they are filled with kids with limited language, and are places where Peter would not be taught to think and speak his thoughts. What if the "least restrictive" environment is determined to be the one that we have to keep paying for?
So I am feeling a bit apprehensive. And while Peter is doing really well. I don't think I could JUST do regular preschool. I think we need some kind of continuing support. Maybe that means the school or us paying for AVT once a week, and a regular preschool, and Music Together. Then there is all the drama about finding the right regular preschool!
Here is the latest video!
Now I have to figure out what happens next. All this talk of IEP teams, and decisions, and what qualifies and what doesn't qualify for services. What do I want? What will the district offer? Will I even want what they offer?
My home school district is small. They have managed their budgets as well as could be expected with the state funding cuts over the last few years, but when they don't have the money to pay for classrooms to be cleaned every night I don't think they have oodles of money to spare. So how will money affect decision-making? Their SLP is very nice, but has only worked with one CI kid, and that was more than eight years ago. How will that play into things? I want to visit the public options for deaf preschools, and they would be less of a commute, but what if they are filled with kids with limited language, and are places where Peter would not be taught to think and speak his thoughts. What if the "least restrictive" environment is determined to be the one that we have to keep paying for?
So I am feeling a bit apprehensive. And while Peter is doing really well. I don't think I could JUST do regular preschool. I think we need some kind of continuing support. Maybe that means the school or us paying for AVT once a week, and a regular preschool, and Music Together. Then there is all the drama about finding the right regular preschool!
Here is the latest video!
Monday, July 28, 2014
Not a cow!
I haven't been writing as much lately as I have been busy enjoying summer! I am loving the lack of driving, being able to do some gardening, and going on a family trip!
But there have been a couple things that I wanted to note as milestones. First, Peter can now put his headpieces back on himself! This is huge, as it gives him more control over his technology and how he uses it. He sometimes wears his Naidas (behind the ear processors), but usually my feisty, active, rough housing guy is sporting his Neptunes in pockets on his shirt. The cables are threaded through a buttonhole I made in each side of the collar, so if he knocks the headpiece off, it just dangles. Now he can get it and stick it back on, though usually with the cable pointed up, and his hair extra crazy ;)
Also, Peter has been asking for his ears (or the shirt with the CI's in it) in the morning and after nap! Now, it isn't 100%, and there are still plenty of times during tantrums when he takes his ears off, but in general he is great about wearing them, and I am so happy he is asking for them!
Finally, a glimpse of how much CI kids really can overhear and learn naturally: yesterday we walked to the dog park with my mom, and Peter was walking with me, at least 10 feet back (outside, with freeway and other car noise nearby). My mom told her dog to stop eating grass, that he wasn't a cow. Today, on a hike, Peter looked down at Guiness (my mom's dog), who was eating grass and blocking the trail, and yelled "Not a cow!" At first I was confused, then I realized why he was saying it, and I just laughed! So much speech therapy is focused on auditory memory, so it makes me worried I don't work on that enough, but when he overhears an expression one day and uses it correctly the next it makes me feel like he is on the right track, and will do just fine.
I will leave you with a short clip I filmed before the end of of school. We obviously watched Frozen a few times!
But there have been a couple things that I wanted to note as milestones. First, Peter can now put his headpieces back on himself! This is huge, as it gives him more control over his technology and how he uses it. He sometimes wears his Naidas (behind the ear processors), but usually my feisty, active, rough housing guy is sporting his Neptunes in pockets on his shirt. The cables are threaded through a buttonhole I made in each side of the collar, so if he knocks the headpiece off, it just dangles. Now he can get it and stick it back on, though usually with the cable pointed up, and his hair extra crazy ;)
Also, Peter has been asking for his ears (or the shirt with the CI's in it) in the morning and after nap! Now, it isn't 100%, and there are still plenty of times during tantrums when he takes his ears off, but in general he is great about wearing them, and I am so happy he is asking for them!
Finally, a glimpse of how much CI kids really can overhear and learn naturally: yesterday we walked to the dog park with my mom, and Peter was walking with me, at least 10 feet back (outside, with freeway and other car noise nearby). My mom told her dog to stop eating grass, that he wasn't a cow. Today, on a hike, Peter looked down at Guiness (my mom's dog), who was eating grass and blocking the trail, and yelled "Not a cow!" At first I was confused, then I realized why he was saying it, and I just laughed! So much speech therapy is focused on auditory memory, so it makes me worried I don't work on that enough, but when he overhears an expression one day and uses it correctly the next it makes me feel like he is on the right track, and will do just fine.
I will leave you with a short clip I filmed before the end of of school. We obviously watched Frozen a few times!
Friday, May 16, 2014
ASL moments
Today was our last Playgroup at the School for the Deaf for the school year. While we are there Peter watches a lot, but doesn't really engage others in conversations, well, except for MORE CRACKER ;). So I am going out of my way to give him all this ASL input- is he getting anything out of it?
At the end of Playgroup we had time to take part in another research study, this one by ASL BabyLab, which tracked eye movements to judge response to ASL. Two pictures were shown on a tv screen, then a signer in the video asked about one of the items using only sign, and a video camera mounted above the tv tracked where Peter looked. I could also tell where he was looking, as he was sitting my lap. I am proud to say he pretty much nailed every one! AND he even learned the sign for DOLL, which I didn't know (so didn't use) and he figured it out by process of elimination the first time he saw it, and was quick to identify it the next times he saw it. Peter was a rock star, and got a red t-shirt proclaiming him a Jr. Scientist for his efforts :)
While Peter and I were in the video booth Sam even got into the ASL mood by asking to watch the Signed Stories app (so great BTW) with the spoken narration turned off! I was a bit surprised the ASL BabyLab guy had never seen the app before, but he was quite impressed with Samantha :)
Then it was some errands and home for an attempted nap. The nap never happened, but this cute interaction did. Peter started in ASL, then when I turned on the camera, it was mostly me signing, and Peter talking, though he does use some signs in the video, too:
At the end of Playgroup we had time to take part in another research study, this one by ASL BabyLab, which tracked eye movements to judge response to ASL. Two pictures were shown on a tv screen, then a signer in the video asked about one of the items using only sign, and a video camera mounted above the tv tracked where Peter looked. I could also tell where he was looking, as he was sitting my lap. I am proud to say he pretty much nailed every one! AND he even learned the sign for DOLL, which I didn't know (so didn't use) and he figured it out by process of elimination the first time he saw it, and was quick to identify it the next times he saw it. Peter was a rock star, and got a red t-shirt proclaiming him a Jr. Scientist for his efforts :)
While Peter and I were in the video booth Sam even got into the ASL mood by asking to watch the Signed Stories app (so great BTW) with the spoken narration turned off! I was a bit surprised the ASL BabyLab guy had never seen the app before, but he was quite impressed with Samantha :)
Then it was some errands and home for an attempted nap. The nap never happened, but this cute interaction did. Peter started in ASL, then when I turned on the camera, it was mostly me signing, and Peter talking, though he does use some signs in the video, too:
Thursday, May 15, 2014
One Year of Hearing!
Today is the first anniversary of Peter's first activation. I am hoping to film him and add that, but unfortunately he seems to have come down with a cold and is not feeling great, so we will see.
This last year has been intense, to say the least. Peter is doing so well, even better then predicted, so I can't complain. As much as I hate being so busy and driving so much each week, I am overjoyed about the results. Right now we have 2 mornings of Oral school (class is 9:00-11:30, with 30 minutes of that time with a speech therapist), one morning with a 45 minute Music Together class followed a 60 minutes AVT session, and occasional play dates at the School for the Deaf to see ASL in action. I had given up on the county services because they were so depressing, but they are revamping the program starting with summer session, so I might see if it's any better. I don't think you have to do as much as we do to be as successful, but I don't want to cut back on what seems to be working for us.
Peter's vocabulary continues to grow weekly, if not daily, so it's impossible to keep an accurate list! I will add a document showing signed and spoken vocab growth over the last six months, but since I did it for his birthday it is already out of date ;)
Two-word combos are frequent, three words are coming along nicely ("Where mama car?" Or "Where red vacuum?" for example). Peter has some great listening skills- last night from across the room and up half a flight of stairs he heard the door open and shouted "Hello, Daddy!" As my husband came home. He said it so clearly my husband thought it was our 5-year-old daughter!
Current obsessions: the Music Together song "Hop Ol' Squirrel", watering things with the spray nozzle of the hose (sisters included), opening doors, or just shouting "open!" when he sees doors, clocks ("Tick-tick, tick-tick!!!) and identifying people who are crying (and if it is his sisters, making fun of them for it !)
Below: one poorly filmed, hastily edited video snapshot of where we are.
Right now I feel like we are in the middle of scaling Half-Dome. The climb is not over. We are securely tied in, and I don't think we are going to fall at all, but there is still a lot of hard work to do. We will pay for one more year of school, and we have one more year of coverage for the AVT therapy, then we are in the hands of our school district (which is tiny, and I don't think they have ever had a CI kid, and maybe not even any deaf or hard-of-hearing kids). I feel like that set of transitions will be like stepping off of Half Dome, so I had better get to the top before they happen ;).
This last year has been intense, to say the least. Peter is doing so well, even better then predicted, so I can't complain. As much as I hate being so busy and driving so much each week, I am overjoyed about the results. Right now we have 2 mornings of Oral school (class is 9:00-11:30, with 30 minutes of that time with a speech therapist), one morning with a 45 minute Music Together class followed a 60 minutes AVT session, and occasional play dates at the School for the Deaf to see ASL in action. I had given up on the county services because they were so depressing, but they are revamping the program starting with summer session, so I might see if it's any better. I don't think you have to do as much as we do to be as successful, but I don't want to cut back on what seems to be working for us.
Peter's vocabulary continues to grow weekly, if not daily, so it's impossible to keep an accurate list! I will add a document showing signed and spoken vocab growth over the last six months, but since I did it for his birthday it is already out of date ;)
Two-word combos are frequent, three words are coming along nicely ("Where mama car?" Or "Where red vacuum?" for example). Peter has some great listening skills- last night from across the room and up half a flight of stairs he heard the door open and shouted "Hello, Daddy!" As my husband came home. He said it so clearly my husband thought it was our 5-year-old daughter!
Current obsessions: the Music Together song "Hop Ol' Squirrel", watering things with the spray nozzle of the hose (sisters included), opening doors, or just shouting "open!" when he sees doors, clocks ("Tick-tick, tick-tick!!!) and identifying people who are crying (and if it is his sisters, making fun of them for it !)
Below: one poorly filmed, hastily edited video snapshot of where we are.
Right now I feel like we are in the middle of scaling Half-Dome. The climb is not over. We are securely tied in, and I don't think we are going to fall at all, but there is still a lot of hard work to do. We will pay for one more year of school, and we have one more year of coverage for the AVT therapy, then we are in the hands of our school district (which is tiny, and I don't think they have ever had a CI kid, and maybe not even any deaf or hard-of-hearing kids). I feel like that set of transitions will be like stepping off of Half Dome, so I had better get to the top before they happen ;).
Friday, April 18, 2014
Lab Rat
Today we took part in a science experiment! I am not sure exactly what kind of results they are looking for, but it was run by a neurolinguistic lab out of one of our state universities. They did three separate experiments, all designed for CIkids who sign, too. The first one was auditory- Peter had CI's on, and watched a silent video, and they played some (loud) random noises. Peter had a little cap on with electrodes touching his scalp, and they recorded brain response to the noises. Peter just sat in my lap, and was completely unfazed, though I could tell the first loud noises were a bit startling. The second experiment he still had the cap on, but no CI's, and he watched a video (of a funny claymation penguin) with some random peripheral vision things once in a while. The last exercise was just a language (sign) survey- so no cap, and CI's were back on. One of the researchers would show a page with two pictures, sign one and ask which picture it was (in sign). Peter did so well! He didn't know the signs we don't use (like CANDY) and there were a couple where he liked one picture and was excited to touch it regardless of the question, but he got a huge majority right- and I have never done that kind of game/test with him at home in sign.
The whole thing, including picking a prize (toy tractor for Peter, $20 Target card for me) took less than an hour, and afterward we went to the playground for a little bit. It was beautiful and sunny, and a fun start to Peter's birthday weekend!
The whole thing, including picking a prize (toy tractor for Peter, $20 Target card for me) took less than an hour, and afterward we went to the playground for a little bit. It was beautiful and sunny, and a fun start to Peter's birthday weekend!
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Age-appropriate!
He is on the lower end of normal right now, but moving quickly. One therapist said she had never seen a child test at that level with less than a year of hearing. Our work is far from done, but it is such a relief to know that it is truly paying off. I think all those different pieces - family, me, signing as much as I could from birth, music class, school, and his three different speech therapists all contributed to his growth over the last year. We are doing so well we got booted from Baby Talk (a free FaceTime-delivered distance therapy program), so they can help families who need it more. Gotta say I don't mind being dropped because Peter is just doing so well.
I know not all kids are going to catch up like that. I think it is usually closer to three years old, but they do catch up, and are often ahead of hearing peers entering school! This technology is amazing!
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