The sun is shining, flowers are blooming and we only have about 4 weeks left of school. How time is flying by! Life seems to be just full of fun right now. Isobel is loving school and it is so great to have conversations with her about her day. When I think back to the beginning of the year, we would get two or three words about her day, now we get so much information. Not just about her day either, we know who hurt them self, who got into trouble, who she played with, as well as some of the activities she has been doing. Just this morning she told me she was making a bird in her art class.
Daddy Daughter Dinner Dance
We believe she is really lucky to be here with the wonderful opportunities she has. This past month alone, she has had a Daddy Daughter Dinner Dance, Crazy dress up days, a Sports Day, not to mention going to different plays, music concerts and art exhibitions.
She is talking so much and her confidence is growing rapidly. She is no longer afraid to ask what is that, in fact, she will hound you until you have completely explained it to her. Her speech is becoming clearer, to the point that people who don't see or speak to her often can understand her. She is also beginning to enter into and over hear conversations. This is quite significant as this requires her to be passively listening, that is, listening when she is not the direct recipient of the information. It's a great development. It is a relief to know that the choice to go ahead with the cochlear implant was the right one. Looking at the Sports Day video, it's also good to know that her hearing loss doesn't seem to have affected her balance at all.
The two girls together are flourishing, growing so fast, learning so much from each other (good and bad). We enjoy watching their interactions and how they are developing. It is so important for them, being in this international environment, friends will come and go in schools like this, but sisters, I hope, will always be there for each other. Even if it is to outshine one another with an impromptu performance whilst walking the mountain behind our school.
Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters....
Yet again, it's been a while since the last blog, time just keeps getting away from us. We're all ticking along days, rolling into weeks, then months, and before we know it, we'll be into the summer holidays. Isobel is going from strength to strength, great school reports, calmer and more mature behaviour and according to her music teacher - singing in tune. This singing is quite amazing to us, as both of her hearing parents can't really do this!
As I have said so many times, she is such a happy, smiley child these days. She is really understanding humour right now, I love the sound of her laughter, it is so infectious! AVT continues, we're looking at where people come from, where they live, introducing new vocabulary such as sports. Learning -ing words and playing lots and lots of 'Go Fish!' Here Isobel and Estella talk with Daddy about different countries they know and the people that might live or come from there.
Here Isobel is learning about different types of sports, asking for specific sports and using -ing verbs. (If you have the volume up loud enough, you'll hear a supportive 'Good Job' from Estella!)
On my last blog, I posted a video about the inspirational Long brothers. This time I've drawn inspiration from Rachel Coleman, founder of Signing Time. This video was posted on the Parents of Children who are Deaf or HOH group. It's an amazing story and reflection of discovering her child was deaf at 1 year old and how life changed because of it. She's the kind of Mum I hope to be like, when I grow up!
We had a wonderful Christmas holiday visiting Disneyland Hong Kong. Anyone who knows Isobel, knows just how much she adores Disney Princesses right now, and wants to be one. She loves to dress up and whirl around the lounge dressed as Belle, Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.
We easily managed to fill 2 days at the park and also had a character lunch - great food, and a guaranteed photo with Mickey! I have to confess I was a little nervous about how Isobel would do at the park, there are pretty long noisy queues and lots going on to stimulate the senses. I just couldn't be sure how well she was going to cope and how I was going to try and control some of those situations.
Lucky for us, Disney had it all figured out. On our first day at the park, we stopped by Guest Services to see what could be done about getting seats for the shows so that Isobel could hear and see them properly. We sat her up on the counter and explained that she wore a cochlear implant and that she would find it difficult to appreciate the shows if she were off to the side or too far back. To our surprise, the very nice 'cast member' filled us out an 'accessibility' pass - yep, the one that also allows to to bypass the queues. It doesn't get you straight on the ride, but it significantly reduces the wait time.
We were not expecting this pass at all, but totally loved using it! Because we didn't have to queue for hours to get on rides, we were able to get photos and autographs with the Princesses, which of course Isobel just loved. She had an absolutely fantastic time, and not a melt down in sight, she coped remarkably well.
The New Year flew by with Estella's 3rd birthday and travelling back to Korea. School resumed, Isobel turned 5 and we celebrated with, of course, a Princess and Knights themed Party. Busy is an understatement!
Now all that is over, a calm moment to reflect on events from the past year, and look to what 2013 will bring.
All parents know, and will tell you, that their children are amazing, but I have to say Isobel amazes me. She is not a perfect child by any means and we still have some really tough days and unpleasant parenting to dish out, but there is something that she shows me each day that amazes me. She has worked so hard this last year, quite possibly without even realising it, this is taken from her Auditory Verbal progress report.
...In this approach (AV) the child is taught developmentally and all teaching is done through audition alone. The child’s hearing age is taken into account when setting goals and the child progresses through all developmental milestones in audition, speech and language. Isobel began at the beginning, with goals set that are typical for a child less than one year of age even though she was nearly four years old. She has progressed nicely since receiving her hearing devices and has gained approximately three years growth in only 14 months...
...She entered school with no language and now speaks in short phrases. She is less frustrated at home and communicates verbally rather than non-verbally. She can, for the first time in her life, talk to her parents about events and friends at school.
On our way to school this morning, she skipped along holding my hand, and recited the whole of 'No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed'. Nick and I haven't taught her that particular song. The cool thing about this is that Estella taught her that one. I'm looking forward to 2013 bringing more of these experiences where two sisters can learn from each other and grow together.
I'd like to think that they'll be there for one another in the future as this truly inspirational boy is there for his brother.
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!)
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...
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!
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.
