Kat Reading

Kat Reading

Monday, September 6, 2010

Improvements

I have noticed some very drastic improvements in Miss Kat's speech and spoken language in the last two weeks. She is doing great with adding the final consonants (she has always been a deleter, and it really lowers her intelligibility) and she is now adding "s" for plurals! Yeah Miss Kat! (Just a note, these were actually CID's biggest concerns. They thought if we fixed those two things Miss Kat would be come infinitely more understandable.)


So, what is the mysterious explanation for such great results in such a short amount of time? Well, I have a few theories:

First, Miss Kat did have her bilateral implant activated. It correlates with the exact time frame of these improvements.

Second, she is back in school. The difference could be because she is back in school full time.

And last, and what I think the answer truly is (though I am sure the other things helped), Miss Kat has a new speech therapist at school! As I have posted in the past, we have had some struggles with the speech therapist (read: I despise the old therapist!) I had declined speech therapy for Miss Kat last year because I believe that the former therapist is not qualified to work with Miss Kat (in fact, I had nightmares, actual nightmares about her). But this year we have a GREAT therapist! We have actually have worked with her in the past. She was a graduate student at the University where Miss Kat gets her aural rehab. So, we know that she works well with Miss Kat, I know that she is good at her job and I know who trained her and I trust her COMPLETELY!

I am very excited about Miss Kat's progress and her new therapist! Woo Hoo!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

And now, a week later...

When I last blogged, I was very honest about Miss Kat's reaction to her second implant activation. I was really surprised at the reaction....actually, a better word would be disappointed. I am not really surprised by the online Deaf community anymore. I have had VERY nasty comments, accusations of child abuse, blah blah blah, and because I "showed weakness" it happened again. I wanted to be honest about my daughter's experiences with her cochlear implants, and just her life as a Deaf child, but some people see my honesty as an opportunity to attack and smear cochlear implants....C'est la vie as a hearing parent of an implanted child I suppose.

So, I wanted to update everyone who cares about Miss Kat. She is doing great now! She doesn't mind her second implant anymore. She hasn't struggled putting it on for at least a week now and she doesn't say it is loud at all. She is starting to be able to discriminate simple words with it and no longer hears the "beeping".

It was a struggle in the beginning, but honestly, it was a HUGE life event for her. She can now hear in her other ear! She had surgery and activation and now has hearing in an ear that didn't before! It's kind of a big deal! I think sometimes we forget what an impact that would have in a person's life, we (as parents) are so excited about activation and hearing that we forget what a change it is for the child, and we need to remember to be extra patient and gentle through the transition.

Miss Kat is tired a lot, listening with her new ear is a lot of work! I am glad it is still early in the school year, so there isn't a ton of work and we can focus on catching her ear up and therapy, and not fall behind in homework and stuff. She is doing great!

So, I want to say to other parents, keep going, it get better, it's worth it! You chose a CI for your child for reasons, you want them to have the opportunity to hear. There will be struggles, there will be bad days, but the good days will outweigh them. I would like to say to the doubters...I told you so :) She is happy, healthy and likes her CI and it took all of a week.