Is that too much to ask? I want Peter to be a super-user with his CI. I want him to succeed in school, and worry about how to fit in yet another AP class in high school. I want him to learn to advocate for himself. I want him to get a scholarship to university- sports or academic, either would be OK! I want him to have good friends and enjoy life. I hope everything we are doing now is building a foundation for future success. We are following enough people on this journey that I don't feel lost, but CI kids are still such a minority!
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening in California (Summary of all states) just started in 1998, and has become standard across the country only since 1999, as described in this NIH fact sheet. And the FDA lowered the age guidelines for Cochlear Implantation to 12 months in 2000. So the first cohort of early identified, early implanted kids is just getting to high school age! There hasn't been time for most local schools to have a true depth and breadth of experience with "today's" CI kids. So CI parents aren't alone, but we still have to navigate so many decisions on our own, use our gut instincts a lot, and we may go into schools where we are the first ones to educate them about what our amazing kids need to become those poster kids of academic success.
I wonder how the transition to our local school will go for us. They take over responsibility for services to Peter at age three, and that transition/ hand-off to the local school district starts a year from now. I try not to worry too much, but sometimes it's hard not to after hearing so many stories about contentious IFSP/IEP meetings, and how schools with no experience can have too-low expectations of CI kids. I will try to keep the worry to a minimum and just continue to educate myself :)
I have been worrying about that transition lately as well. It ends for us after next year. Our AV therapist is great and she's almost like a member of our family so we really don't want to be phased out of that program. The other IFSP program we were obligated to work with in order to get our AV therapist is another story. We very rarely hear anything from them at all. I'm really trying to home school Butters for as long as possible, but we will see how that goes.
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