A Year of Hearing

Well here we are one year later, one year of hearing, all be it only 10 weeks of bionic hearing, but in total it's been a year since we began this journey.


One year on, Isobel is a happy, smiley little girl who loves to chitter chat.

She now has a MLU (Mean Length Utterance) of 3.75, up from 2.5 in June. In a recent Speech Analysis, she came out at 3y 11m, just 1 year behind her chronological age. And her school report was pleasing with grades being appropriate for her grade level.


So all in all, we are feeling pretty good about Isobel's progress.


Currently, Isobel is excited about the upcoming festivities of Christmas, we are incorporating Christmas activities and vocabulary into our daily AVT sessions. These have become much more of a family affair with all of us working together. Even Estella likes to play the games and get involved. The funniest times of course, is when she wants to do the Ling Six tests. Isobel is always willing to be the teacher and heap on the praise when she gets it right.

During the last few weeks Isobel has really become a language sponge asking what is this? what is that? when is this..? She loves the calendar as a reference liking to mark important dates and then cross off the days until it arrives. One such event is our holiday to Hong Kong, she knows the date we are flying and will tell us everyday as she proudly puts a big X through the current day on the calendar. She has also learnt such things as birthdays, middle names, where she lives and favourite things, she enjoys talking and answering questions about these things.



You'll see what I mean. (Oh, do look out for the tiny hands that appear from nowhere!)






Goldilocks with Gusto

 

Stories are becoming a big thing in our house. The girls have always liked books but now they are really enjoying the stories.
One of them is Goldilocks and the Three bears. Only when we read it, it has to be Goldilocks and Apa Bear, Mama Bear and Estella Bear.




It is so popular that Isobel often likes to give us the abbreviated version. As always it is delivered with passion and ever so slightly dramatically!

So, as you see, it begins with introductions and ends with shouting.

Just like any other day really!

Another thing that Isobel really likes to do is to be the teacher. Once she has finished her Ling 6 using just her implant, it is only fair that Estella be tested.

I really like the way she claps when Estella gets it right and she finishes the test with a 'very good girl!'

Perhaps an auditory verbal therapist is training...

Hunting for Bears

Isobel is adapting to her cochlear implant beautifully. All the experts seem to be pretty impressed with how she's coping, what she can her and her responses to sounds.

We are striving forward with therapy in one respect, but have gone backwards in others. About 15 minutes a day, Isobel works without her hearing aid and just uses the implant.

We have gone back to our Ling 6 sounds and training her brain to hear them and distinguish between them. She is doing pretty well at it. She also has to distinguish between different songs that we've done from the beginning. She's also doing pretty well at that too.
She is back to not liking me to cover my mouth, as she is trying to cheat a bit while her brain get used to the new sounds and deciphering them. Knowing we have paced through this phase before gives me confidence to know that we'll get through it again.


Our current book for therapy is Michael Rosen's 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. It is full of lots of repetitive language, which is very good for listening to and echoing. Both girls are very much enjoying the book and get very drawn into it. It is so lovely to see Isobel getting so excited by stories and books.

 

 

We ended the evening by going on a bear hunt out the back of our apartment building. It was getting dark, so we took our torches and set of through the small wooded area looking for a bear. We used all the words we could remember as we trekked through our story.

 

Sadly, we didn't find a bear, but we did come across a big Apa instead!



Switched On

Isobel's scar is healing up nicely and yesterday, we were back at the hospital for our switch on.

I have to confess to being somewhat disappointed with the actual 'switch on'! After watching so many wonderful life changing moments on You tube, I think I may have built up the moment to be greater than it could ever be.

Realistically, it was never going to be an 'eureka moment'. Isobel isn't going from silence to perfect hearing and understanding. She's going from Some hearing and understanding to noise and confusion.

However, in the doctors office yesterday there was no real reaction to the device. The Audiologist showed us graphs so we could see that neurologically, it was working.

After going through 40 minutes of instruction of how to use the device, clean it and put together the variations of processor and battery pack combinations, we finally went home.

After the children had gone to bed, Nick and I went through our briefcase paraphernalia. So much stuff to go through and make sure that we know how it works and how to get it to stay on Isobel's ear. Finally, we went to bed wondering if yet again we had done the right thing.

So much stuff behind her ear

This morning was eventful, trying to get everything to balance and fit behind Isobel's ear. The conventional battery pack behind her ear is too big and fights against the coil and magnet causing her ear to really stick out.

In the end I opted for the child battery pack connected to the processor  a wire. I managed to get it to stay behind her ear by by sewing the ear gear sleeve to the headband that Isobel wears to hold her hearing aid on.

My CI Processor holder (patent pending - ha)

All was balanced and I switched the power on.

Isobel immediately burst into tears crying, "too much shout, too much squeak. EEEEEEE!"

A reaction! I was so relieved, concerned of course because she was crying, but thrilled to see a reaction to it. I managed to turn down the volume using the remote control and quickly she calmed down and was happy.

The walk to school was very different this morning. "ssshhh Mummy"

Later today she was playing with the sounds her voice makes, it's quite funny to listen to. She has also continued to be her chatty self, and as the day has gone on she has returned to the little girl full of smiles.

I guess, in the end, we got our 'eureka moment' after all.

Inside and Out

Here is Isobel's implant. This is a copy of the x-ray that she had immediately after her surgery last Tuesday.

Here is a close up of the implant section, how cool is it?

You can clearly see the electrodes coiling around the inside of her cochlea and the device implanted just under the skin above her ear. 

I find this image truly amazing, this tiny piece of technology is hopefully going to help her to hear so much better. With continued AVT it's hopefully going to help her speak more clearly and be able to communicate with others so much more effectively.

So Isobel had another big day today, she had her stitches out. Given the previous visits I was bracing myself for some serious screaming. Not the case, she was so brave and sat very still. The hardest, and most uncomfortable part for Isobel was removing the adhesive dressing. That was mostly because it was stuck to her hair, think band aid on a hairy arm multiplied by 100!

She has been given the all clear! No more dressings and back to school tomorrow. It isn't very pretty, and I'm sure there will be lots of conversation in her class about it, but, her hair will grow soon enough - in fact you can see new hair growing already. Given time the scar will also eventually fade.

As a friend of mine said to me last week, it is one more interesting chapter in the journey of her life.

The hard bit for now is stopping Isobel from touching the scar. It must be difficult, not being able to see it. She is always very interested to see the photographs we take. She looks at them, gasps and says 'big owie'.

For now it is a big owie, but it won't be for long...

Telling Friends

I am always trying to find different ways to make Isobel's journey a little smoother. Trying to think of scenarios that might happen and what can be done to help them be a little easier.

The transition back to school after the implantation surgery is one of these scenarios. How to explain everything to her little preschool friends and have them understand some of Isobel's behaviours and hearing problems.

I was looking for some kind of book that would explain to Isobel's friends how her hearing equipment works and the challenges she faces every day.

As always my first port of call are the children who are hard of hearing forums - they were full of super mums that had created wonderful scrapbooks, filled with photographs and beautiful hand written messages - true labours of love. Great memories but not really what I had in mind. 


Next port of call was Google -I struggled to find anything in the market, so I started to prepare myself for creating my own book, trying to ignore just how long it would take. Until one afternoon whilst aimlessly surfing I came across Experience Books www.experiencebooks.co.uk.


Online I adapted a character to look like Isobel and I clicked different criteria regarding her hearing equipment and difficulties she experiences. Also a really nice feature is listing different things she enjoys doing and what her everyday life is like.


We're looking forward to finding out what her friends at school make of it.

 



One of the pages from her book



Implanted

The first part is over!

Last Monday (13th August) we checked Isobel into the Children's Hospital at Severance in Seoul.

We got settled into the room, unpacked a few bits and got ready for the 'camping trip' that Isobel thought she was having.

We told her that she and Mummy were going on a camping trip and that she would also be getting a new special computer ear.

She was so very brave when I had to shave the hair around her ear. The nurse measured 3 cms around her ear and drew the shape on her scalp with a Biro. After reassuring her it wouldn't hurt, I set about shaving the hair up to the drawn line.

As if that wasn't enough for the first night,
she then had to have a skin test for antibiotics because she's allergic to penicillin.

She then spent the rest of the evening watching movies before falling asleep.

The next morning. bright and early, the nurse arrived to fit the IV and before we knew it we were off to the Operating Room. Then began the longest 2 hours of our lives.

We tried to have some breakfast and read a while but thoughts and concerns kept flooding back to our little girl on the operating table.

The minutes slowly ticked by until the screen finally read operation complete. The worst part was seeing her in the recovery room. Her throat and chest were clearly sore, and she had this awful dog bark cough. She was so very pale and she was feeling sorry for herself - and quite rightly too!

Next was an X-ray to check that everything had been inserted correctly (it had been) and then it was back to the ward for a little rest. After a couple of hours, she was allowed to nap if she wanted to, she didn't, and have a drink.

She was suffering from quite a bit of pain so the nurse gave her some pain killers. They seemed to take effect quite quickly because soon enough she was calming down and the colour was returning to her cheeks.

After a couple of hours, and a few bathrooms visits, she was walking around, dragging her IV around with her, back to her chatty, smiley self.

A restless night followed, not for Isobel, but for me. The bandage worked its way off the top of her head no less than 5 times. I had to keep redoing it so her wound wasn't exposed throughout the night.

Early this morning a doctor visited to change the large bandage for a smaller dressing. This one was much better, much less itchy and Isobel clearly felt a lot more comfortable. She wanted to wear regular clothes and was quite excitable and bouncy.

Her wound was then inspected by the surgeon, it was fine with just a little swelling, and he showed me the X-ray. It was really cool to see the device and be able to count the electrodes in her cochlea. Amazing! Even more amazing, he said Isobel was doing so well she could go home this afternoon.

With that done, all that was left was to pay the bill, pack up, and get out of Dodge.

So, that's what we did.






It's good to be home...





Isobel's Cochlear Implant

The Cochlea

 

INTERNAL PARTS 



This is the Maestro PULSARCI100 cochlear implant by MED-EL. This is the device that Isobel will be fitted with on Tuesday. Being a huge fan of labelling in my classroom, I feel reassured seeing that this has a clear label about the positioning requirements.

It is light weight, made from ceramic and has been specifically designed for children and infants. Again, being an art teacher, the ceramic nature of it plays to my sensibilities. I can't explain why, but it makes me feel more comfortable that it isn't titanium. This will be surgically placed under the skin just behind her ear.





This is a a close up of the electrode array that will be inserted into Isobel's cochlea. It's actual width is just 2.4mm and 31mm long. The cochlea, approximately 7mm in diameter, the size of a pea is one of only two organs that are full size when you are born. In the cochlea are three fluid-filled canals called the scala tympani, scala media and scala vestibuli. These canals are responsible for transmitting sound vibrations to the brain. It is in one of these canals that the electrode array of the cochlear implant will be inserted.



The cochlea converts sounds from mechanical vibrations into signals that are passed on to the brain via the auditory nerve. This process is performed by specialised hair cells inside the cochlea. These hair cells are arranged according to pitches or tones. This arrangement is referred to as tonotopicity. In normal hearing, low-frequency pitches cause nerve fibres to fire in the apex, or middle of the cochlea. High pitches cause nerve fibres in the base of the cochlea to fire. Isobel has difficulty with the low-frequency sounds, so she will need the electrode array to be fully inserted.

 

EXTERNAL PARTS

This is the audio processor that she will wear over her ear. It consists of a control unit, a battery pack, and a coil that transmits information through the skin to the receiver in the implant.

She will even have her own remote control!

HOW IT ALL WORKS

 

Summers End, Implant Beginnings

Summers End

What a whirlwind our summer vacation has been. Every-one has marvelled at our wonderful girl!

We never could have imagined the changes that have taken place in Isobel. When we look back to the previous summer they are so many, we couldn't count them all.

One of Isobel's favourite things from the summer was playing hairdressers with Nana, she would ask every day - 'first dinner, then shower, then hair?'

She has played nicely with her cousins, and strangers at farm parks and playgrounds. We have all had a fabulous time.

It still makes us smile to think back on all the wonderful things that different people have said about her over the past five weeks.

 

Implant Beginnings

Today however, has not been so much fun.

Today, Isobel had her pre-surgery tests which just seemed to take forever. It seemed that the whole of Seoul was at the hospital today, and they were all having the same test that Isobel was having at the exact same time that she was having it.

The day started with no breakfast, she had to fast for 8 hours. Upon arrival at the international clinic, we were asked to produce a 'sample'. Well that was eventful! Due to 'nil by mouth' for the last 8 hours, Isobel promptly announced to me, 'No Mama, I can't,  there's no pee-pee'.

We then took matters into hand and sneakily gave her some water.

As we waited for the water to filter down, it was time to take blood. I do believe that some of the people in the waiting area thought that a young child was being murdered in the treatment room. It's a good job that no other children were waiting for any treatments because they would have gone running for the hills.

Surprisingly, after the needle was in, she wriggled her head round to see what was going on and was quite mesmerised watching her blood drip into the tube. Of course it wasn't much fun when the nurse decided the blood wasn't flowing fast enough and needed to try a different vein. Cue loud screaming!

Next was to try for the sample again - 'No Mama, still no pee-pee!'

OK, onward for the MRI. This test was to make sure that Isobel has a cochlea nerve. Without one a cochlear implant is useless. In order for Isobel to remain still while having the MRI she needed to be sedated. This meant inserting an IV. Yes, indeed more screaming. IV secured, we now waited to go in for the MRI.This is of course the exact time that the water decided to make itself known! Typical, Isobel is all attached to the IV and now she needs to go!

So, off the bathroom we go, trundling the saline drip with us. Fun and games commenced, suffice to say a 'sample' was collected - hurrah!

Sedation time arrived and we notice that Isobel's arm had become swollen. It seemed that during the 'sample gathering' the needle had become dislodged and the saline had caused the swelling. It was back to the nurse to have it removed and a new one replaced in the other arm! Our brave little girl now had 4 punctures in her arms, screamed every-time, but came back smiling when it was over.

Determined for it not to happen again, Isobel set about walking around with a very straight arm. We had 2 more bathroom visits, (too much water!) more waiting (we missed our turn due to the swelling) and then we were finally in. The anasthesiologist gave her a syringe full of white liquid that created instant sleep, before we new it she was in the MRI being scanned.

After half an hour it was complete, she came around quickly and was alert and resposive. Ready for the final test - an Xray. Nothing unusual to report here, quick and effecient and Isobel was a star. Once I had convinced her that this was a 'No owie' test.

The whole exprience was rounded off in the only way that 4 hours of tests and waiting could - with ice-cream.

Think we'll need a freezer full for next week...

Summer Vacation

We have finally recovered from the 5514 mile journey from Korea to England, and we kind of have the jetlag under control.

Isobel has been 'wowing' her relatives with all the changes that have taken place in her behaviour, personality and language development. She really is the star of the show! This summer is already such a completely different experience from last summer.

She has been very excited to meet everyone, interact with them and chatter along to them. It isn't always possible to understand what she is saying, but usually after a couple of tries and some Mummy/Daddy interpretation the conversation goes smoothly.

She has already enjoyed riding by herself in Nana and Grandpops' car (something that would never have happened last summer), feeding the ducks and walking through the market.

Currently, we are in Weymouth where she has enjoyed walking along the beach, eating fish and chips on Grandad's boat and taking in the hustle and bustle of a seaside town. The size of the seagulls are amazing to her but she does find them somewhat intimidating.

AVT is going marvellously. With so many willing helpers, Isobel is really enjoying the games and lesson as well as the opportunity to show off the skills she has already built up. All that coupled with the story tellers and everyday life filled with new vocabulary and experiences, her language is coming along nicely.

It is so nice to keep hearing 'I can't believe how much she has changed since last summer...'

Happy Little Girl

Well it's been a while...

It is now 6 months since Isobel has been wearing her hearing aids and we have noticed so many changes in her. The picture says it all, we have one seriously happy little girl. These days she is all smiles, hugs and kisses, and... in training to be a princess. What 4 year old little girl isn't?

Looking back, it has been a challenging 6 months, we have experienced just about every emotion a parent can. We have had some really tough times, but they have really been outweighed by the tremendous highs we have experienced.

Our daughter has really gone from an angry, screamy, 'don't touch me!' girl, to the playful silly little thing you see in the photos. She plays and interacts with many  children, she advocates for them and comforts them when they are hurt or sad. She helps with jobs at home and routines with her little sister. She sits still and plays hairdressers with a little girl from Pre-School. She is constantly singing or chattering sharing her books, her paintings and her toys. It is easy to say she is a completely different child.

We have also experienced such an outpouring of love and support from the community we live and work with (our family away from home). Without that, and the constant love and support from our (blood) family we would never have come as far as we have. We are truly lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

And so as we close the chapter on the first 6 months of the journey of raising a child with hearing loss, we embark on the next 6 months.

These will bring our greatest challenges yet. Isobel will have her cochlear implantation surgery and will have to re-learn how she hears sounds. Sounds will be very different for her and we essentially start from the beginning with her AVT. The good news is, she will move through the steps even faster than she did with the hearing aids.

We hope that she will continue to be the happy little girl we see today throughout all the challenges to come in this next chapter.

Conclusions and Achieving Goals

It's been a few weeks since my last blog and we have been busy, busy! AVT, hearing aid adjustments, more hearing tests, discussions, and a visit from Nana and Grandpops, all the way from England.

Isobel is doing brilliantly, she is jabbering away pretty much constantly, it's funny how we find ourselves having to ask her to be quiet!

Who would have thought it?

The adjustment to the hearing aid has helped with the lower frequency sounds and she is beginning to correct words when she hears them repeated correctly.
Unfortunately, it has had an affect on her high frequency hearing, this has dropped off a little.

Now we know for certain that we have reached the limitations of the hearing aids. We are all in agreement. Isobel will have to have surgery and have a cochlear implant fitted. She will only be getting the right side fitted and she will continue to wear a hearing aid on her left side.

Her Cochlear implantation surgery is scheduled for August, about a week after we return from our Summer vacation in England.

It has been great to have had the time to explore all the options before coming to this point and we're ready to move forward. The relief to all be on the same page regarding Isobel's next steps in indescribable.

We had a great AVT session over the weekend and we got to reflect on the goals that Isobel was set in January. It was so good to be ticking off things that she can do and say, looking at the sheet, it was incredible to see how much she has achieved in such a small amount of time. Here is the first half of the goals, we'll look at the other half during our next session.

It is so nice to be able to chat with her and have her understand most of what we are saying. Mostly, it is lovely to hear her chatting away to Molly (doll formerly known as Special Ears), singing songs and sharing books with any-one willing to listen.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Between a rock...

Have you ever been in one of those situations where one person tells you one thing and another person tells you another? Well, that is where we are. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

In my previous post, I touched upon the frustrations Isobel has been experiencing, due to the mouth covering and the soft sounds she struggles to hear. Our sessions have improved greatly as I have taken a more relaxed approach to them and have built them around some kind of art and craft activity. Her response to these sessions now has been vastly improved and once again she is doing a great job.

A language sample done last week puts her Mean Language Utterance (MLU) at 2.08 words. That is, in free expressive speech the average length of phrase Isobel uses is 2.08. This is on par for a 2 year old, which when you think Isobel has a hearing age of around 4 months is pretty good.

Isobel's school report card came out today and it was... brilliant! There were of course areas for improvement and her language development section was a work in progress, but, compared to her first report card, this looks like it was written for a different child. So happy!

Anyway, I digress. The rock and the hard place situation has occurred because of differing opinions from our ENT and our AV therapist and consultant Audiologist. 

In a nutshell we find ourselves at a crossroad - that is, do we go ahead with Cochlear Implantation?

We have had so many appointments, meetings and discussions in the last two weeks, we feel overwhelmed with information and making a decision couldn't be harder.

We are making strides forward though. Next week Isobel is getting her hearing aids programmed adjusted. It seems we are able to get some more gain on them, an additional 10db in the low frequency range. Hopefully this will help her to hear more of those softer, sounds and she can start to finely tune her speech. Hey we can hope...

So, we're going to see how that helps, but the ENT really does feel that the best course of action would be a cochlear implant on the right side an a hearing aid on the left. Yep, the absolute original idea that we though we might not have to do...

But, because her hearing loss is not a usual hearing loss - (good high frequency hearing and poor low frequency) she is not the typical cochlear implant case, however, with newer technology, cochlear implants can now also help with hearing loss cases just like Isobel.

But the big thing is of course, is that it is surgery. If the hearing aids give her enough to hear all the sounds so she can speak should we do it?

Decisions...

Plateau

I think we have hit a plateau. It was going to happen, things just can't keep going at break neck speed. It just isn't possible.

Isobel is continuing to progress with her AVT but the rate is slowing down. We are getting some more refined sounds, spontaneous talking and the following of instructions.It has however, got somewhat harder for Isobel now, and she is feeling the difficulties.

I can't let her see my mouth anymore when we do our little sessions together and so she can't rely on lip-reading. She is finding this most challenging and frustrating. She often pulls at my hands or whatever I am using to hide my lips. It is a coping strategy that she has been using for a long time and so it is difficult for her to break the habit of looking and to use her ears instead.

It is so difficult at times for me, I am her Mum and her teacher. The teacher inside knows that this is conditioning and we will get through it and have her use her ears. The Mum however just sees her little girl sad and angry and I feel quite guilty because I am causing it. It is a necessity though, and we must ride this storm. 

We shall keep going and hopefully, we shall get through this difficult patch and come out the other end stronger and hopefully a little bit wiser.

It wouldn’t be fun if it was too easy… right?

Push it down the stairs...

Did you ever have a slinky? I'm talking about the rainbow coloured kind, not the one that forms the body of a dog (Toy Story).

Well I happened to find one in the supermarket here and added it into the rewards that Isobel gets when she completes a task or imitates a word correctly. They are just a selection of cheap, fun toys/things that she sees as a real treat when she does well.

By far and away the slinky is her favourite. That is after she had seen how it works. The first hurdle of course was living in an apartment we have no stairs, so we had to venture out into the corridor the find the perfect platform for the slinky.

Now the reason for my long winded introduction. We have had Isobel's first 5 word phrase. 'Push it down the stairs.' It started with 'push it..., push it...' every time she tipped it off the edge of the step. Now we get some version of the whole phrase with each step the slinky is pushed down.

Slinky! Everyones favourite toy.

Chatterbox

Where has the time gone? We have had such a busy time lately!

We had Isobel's AV Therapist out to visit us here in Korea and what a week we had. Intensive! She went to school with Isobel each day and provided well received tips and advice on how to help Isobel. We had afternoon sessions that lasted around 90 minutes each day and all the bits in between in which to squeeze opportunities to model, imitate and just talk, talk, talk.

It was tiring, but so well worth it. Isobel has turned into quite a little chatterbox, she hasn't stopped talking and singing since Cheryl left. We are getting more and more words out of her and longer phrases and sentences. We are just so excited by all of this.

She is continuing to do better in school, joining in on some of the class songs and 'reading' to her classmates. This involves her grabbing a random friend and sitting them on the carpet. She then chooses a book, sits on a chair and reads to them. This is story time type reading, holding out the book and pointing at the words and pictures. This continues until the friend wishes to 'escape' and play something else. At this point they are told to 'sit down', 'stop' and 'listen'!

We have really been working on her being able to say her friends names nice and clearly so she can find a non-physical way of getting their attention. By all accounts, this seems to be working and with some interpretation from her teacher, she is sharing and playing with her friends quite nicely.

Watching her play with her little sister for a brief moment this evening was lovely. They were building a tower and Isobel was able to clearly explain to Estella that the strip she wanted to attach was in fact too big because it had 4 sections. What she really needed was a 2 sectioned piece:


Isobel:  No Estella, too big
            See, four
Estella: Four
Isobel:  This one, two
Estella: Two, OK

And the tower was built! Isobel is getting quite good at helping her little sister out.

Wonderful Technology

I was looking through posts on the Facebook group Parents of Children with Hearing Loss and somebody had posted this video. It is a wonderful video about nine different children who had cochlear implants fitted. They were all different ages when they were implanted, and had varying degrees of pre-implant hearing experience. Subsequently, they are at a different stage of their hearing life with implant use.

Even though Isobel doesn't need the implant right now, we never know what the future may hold for her. Several of these children started out with hearing aids and then needed cochlear implants when the aids couldn't help them any more.

It brought tears to my eyes to watch in amazement how articulate these children are. It was truly difficult to believe that some of them had any hearing difficulty what so ever, especially the young boy explaining all about hockey.



I am so glad that as we go through this journey with Isobel, that we are going through it now. With all the technological advancements being made in this field the future can only be bright for Isobel. She is lucky to be a 21st Century child with these solutions for her problem, what would it have been like for her 50 years ago or 100?

More importantly, I wonder what it is going to be like for her in the future...

It's All Good

We took Isobel for a hearing test today, she did fantastically at well performing the task again. Now she knows what to do there really is no stopping her. Of course the promise of an ice-cream is very good at focusing the mind on the task in hand.

The doctor was pleased with her results and said that she is hearing at around 40db with her hearing aids in. For those of you that have been following the blog, you will know that this is well within the speech banana, and so this is very promising for her speech progress. She is even able to hear some of the higher frequency 20db sounds if the volume is increased slightly when saying them so progress is indeed happening. Because of this progression, we have 6 more months with the hearing aids and no cochlear implant surgery. If she continues to progress in this fashion, we may be in the situation where she won’t ever need to have the implant, the hearing aids alone will do the trick and in 18 months, Isobel with have caught up with her peers in terms of Auditory-Verbal ability. As you can imagine, this news is thrilling for us.

Also, Isobel’s AV therapist is coming out to Korea next week to give Isobel, and us, some intensive therapy. She will be coming in to observe her at school and working with us as a family. We are very much looking forward to this time to really learn more about helping Isobel move forward.

Corben Family

Finally, we have had a break through with the medical Insurance who have agreed to make a one-time exception and cover expenses related to Isobel’s hearing aids, tests and medical bills. This coupled with a generous donation by the community we work with puts us in good shape for the next few years working through the financial side of this adventure.

Things are continuing to look up for us!

Mellow Yellow

The days are going past so quickly, it's Friday again already and we've done a great week of AVT. Isobel is still enjoying singing around the house it's mostly Incy Wincey spider, which she is very reluctant to perform on camera, See-saw, which she striving to teach all the campus kids, and lately Swish, Swish, Swish.

She is hearing high frequency sounds really well and from an increasing distance. Low frequency sounds are causing her to get a little muddled now that I am saying them more quietly. When we take her for her hearing test on Wednesday we are going to try and 'tweak' the programming of her hearing aids a little bit. Hopefully that will help her to hear those sounds at regular speech volume.

We are working on many different things these days and it is reminding me a lot of my days of teaching English. Possessive + noun, Noun + adjective, 2 nouns + adjectives and so on. She is doing a pretty good job at imitating, now we need to work on her spontaneous production of these things.

Today, we did a little bit on yellow, she can say yes with a good y sound and I think we got somewhere with yellow.

It wasn't until afterwards that I thought about how hard yellow is to say, and that a few of the reception kids I teach don't say it properly yet (and they hear perfectly). So silly Mummy, probably done something that is miles away yet, pushing her too hard...

In going through this process with Isobel, it has made me quite conscious about not giving her too many visual clues. Sometimes it is so difficult not to show her the shape I am making with my mouth. It is so important that she hears the sounds and speaks them from hearing rather than seeing. A friend of mine came across this video and it explains what I mean rather well.

Interesting!

Handy AVT

The last three days working with Isobel have been really enjoyable, it so much better working with her at 1 o'clock and she is much more responsive than at 4 o'clock.

We have had such a fun time together, we get our tasks out of the way and then do some artwork followed by baking. Not sure if our waistlines will be able to handle baking everyday, but so far we have made cookies and cup-cakes. Today however we made fake cakes with salt dough.

The big hit has been stamping hand prints. Trying to make the activities fun is essential and as Isobel loves art and craft so much we've been using that as an incentive. Oh and the odd chocolate treat.

This week feels so much better than last week, it's amazing the difference a few hours can make.

Incy Wincey Spider

Isobel has been singing Incy Wincey Spider on and off the last few days. She must have picked it up at school which is brilliant. This is the first thing she has really come home from school with and we are really enjoying her repeating the first line. She does the little spider actions with her hands which is super cute. We haven't been able to catch it on camera yet, but you can be sure that when we do it will be posted.

We have had some more really good news this week. I have been given the opportunity to cut down on my hours at school in order to spend the afternoons working with Isobel. After the tough week we had last week, this has been a real boost. We are really hopeful that being able to spend the morning at Pre-School and the afternoons doing activities with me in the afternoon that her language will really be able to develop.

We also got a real boost during our AVT session this weekend, our therapist said that the possibility that Isobel will have caught up with her peers in 18 months is a totally realistic goal.

So, for us at the moment, the sun has dried up all the rain, and we'll be heading up that drainpipe...

Matching Pair

This week we celebrated Isobel's 4th Birthday. We had a little tea party and had lots of fun playing games and crafts. Isobel was very lucky to receive so many birthday presents but one of the best had to be getting the new hearing aid for her right ear (instead of a cochlear implant) and better by far were her set of Ear Gear.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we were very concerned about the possibility of Isobel loosing her hearing aids and we used a glasses cord to hold them in place. Well, after some research on the Internet, I came across the Ear Gear website(www.gearforears.com), not only does it ensure that the aids won't get lost, they are covered in nylon/Spandex that protects the device from sweat, rain, dust, dirt and sand from the sand box at school. Plus (and this is my favourite part) they come in a range of colours and patterns. Isobel has a pink set, for showing off and a chocolate brown set for when she wants to be incognito!

Therapy has been hard going this week. It has been tough going back to school and trying to slot therapy in between school, dinner and bedtime. We are working on a strategy to deal with this and hopefully next week it will be easier and a bit more rewarding. There have still been some good moments, below are a few snippets for this week, look out for a 'meow', a short phrase and a little bit of singing.