I spoke to our insurance today, and surgery has been postponed. We won't be covered until July 1st, so we had to push back Miss Kat's surgery. We will at CID summer school until July 23rd, so Miss Kat's new implant date is July 28th and activation will (probably, again scheduling issue, we are hoping to move it a little earlier) be August 30th.
I'm pretty disappointed (and I think Miss Kat will be mad about her pillow!) but there is nothing we can do about it. We had the same thing happen with her first CI. We were postponed at the very last minute last time.
Ugh, this whole process is frustrating, but the benefits are so worth it!
Kat Reading
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
HUGE News!!!
Miss Kat headed to the audiologist today. She hasn't been hearing as well as she should for the last couple of weeks, so her school audi put her in the booth, and the results were not great. She was hearing at 40 db in the lows...YIKES! So, Daddy and she took the long drive and got her tweaked. She is now back to hearing 15-25 db across the board!
While Miss Kat was in the booth they did her auditory discrimination testing and an unaided audiogram for her hearing aid ear. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that she scored 96% on her Nu Chips and Wipi tests. Not too bad! The bad news is that she has lost more hearing in her unimplanted ear. She is no longer a borderline CI candidate. (Stupid progressive loss, it really is never going to stop until she is at 120+ db....sorry, rant ended)
So, for a comparison I will post her unaided, unimplanted ear and her CI:
-- 250hz 500hz 1000hz 2000hz 4000hz 8000hz
CI- 25 db 25 db 20 db 15 db 20 db 25 db
Ear-50 db 70 db 90 db 90 db 105 db 90 db
That is a huge difference!
So, that brings me to the final, most exciting piece of news.....we have scheduled Miss Kat's bilateral surgery!! Her (tentative because of insurance issues) surgery date is May 19th! We are hoping to get her activated by June 15th because we are headed to CID for summer school! I am so happy that Miss Kat will be able to take advantage of this great opportunity with the benefit of two ear that hear well!!
We are excited and nervous but overall happy. It is so soon, but it needs to be. When we told Miss Kat she was a little worried. She very clearly remembers her last surgery. She said she was worried that it would hurt, and I explained that the doctor would give us medicine for the pain, and that if she hurt, I would give it to her. She also told me that she thought she wouldn't be able to sleep with the big bandage on her head. I told her that she could sleep on the other ear. (I think that she might have thought she was going to have a bandage on both ears, because we said "You'll have two CI's" not "You'll have ANOTHER, second CI, in the other ear". But she is clear on that now.) So, we went to the store and bought a "Hello Kitty" pillow and blanket and I told her that we will give it to her on surgery day (insert "Can I have (my) CI tomorrow?" "No" "WHY NOT??? I NEED my pillow!!" Argh...) So, now she seems to have her questions answered (except for why it isn't sooner) and she is at least willing, if not so excited.
We know this is for the best. She hears so much better with her CI than she ever did with her hearing aid (even when her loss was 20 sloping to 60db, so very long ago). It has open a whole new world of language to her. This is going to be stressful, and hard, but it will be totally worth it!
While Miss Kat was in the booth they did her auditory discrimination testing and an unaided audiogram for her hearing aid ear. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that she scored 96% on her Nu Chips and Wipi tests. Not too bad! The bad news is that she has lost more hearing in her unimplanted ear. She is no longer a borderline CI candidate. (Stupid progressive loss, it really is never going to stop until she is at 120+ db....sorry, rant ended)
So, for a comparison I will post her unaided, unimplanted ear and her CI:
-- 250hz 500hz 1000hz 2000hz 4000hz 8000hz
CI- 25 db 25 db 20 db 15 db 20 db 25 db
Ear-50 db 70 db 90 db 90 db 105 db 90 db
That is a huge difference!
So, that brings me to the final, most exciting piece of news.....we have scheduled Miss Kat's bilateral surgery!! Her (tentative because of insurance issues) surgery date is May 19th! We are hoping to get her activated by June 15th because we are headed to CID for summer school! I am so happy that Miss Kat will be able to take advantage of this great opportunity with the benefit of two ear that hear well!!
We are excited and nervous but overall happy. It is so soon, but it needs to be. When we told Miss Kat she was a little worried. She very clearly remembers her last surgery. She said she was worried that it would hurt, and I explained that the doctor would give us medicine for the pain, and that if she hurt, I would give it to her. She also told me that she thought she wouldn't be able to sleep with the big bandage on her head. I told her that she could sleep on the other ear. (I think that she might have thought she was going to have a bandage on both ears, because we said "You'll have two CI's" not "You'll have ANOTHER, second CI, in the other ear". But she is clear on that now.) So, we went to the store and bought a "Hello Kitty" pillow and blanket and I told her that we will give it to her on surgery day (insert "Can I have (my) CI tomorrow?" "No" "WHY NOT??? I NEED my pillow!!" Argh...) So, now she seems to have her questions answered (except for why it isn't sooner) and she is at least willing, if not so excited.
We know this is for the best. She hears so much better with her CI than she ever did with her hearing aid (even when her loss was 20 sloping to 60db, so very long ago). It has open a whole new world of language to her. This is going to be stressful, and hard, but it will be totally worth it!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Results of the "big meeting"...
We had the "important meeting" about USDB a few days ago. They were discussing all the changes they intend to make, starting next year. There were good points, and bad, some affect Miss Kat, some don't, but I have opinions about every single one!
The followers of this blog know that USD's program has two paths. There is an "Auditory-Oral" program and an "ASL-English" choice. Beginning in Early Intervention , USD will be providing services that are "language based". That means that a parent must choose one of these languages and USD will provide the services that will help the child learn that language. My concern is for children like Miss Kat (and Cal, whose parents were also at the meeting and seemed as frustrated as I was!) We want our daughter to have fluency in BOTH spoken English AND ASL. We are having trouble figuring out HOW to get the services Miss Kat needs to meet that goal.
We were told that if we want (any) ASL our only choice is to go to the voice-off ASL bi-bi school. I do not believe that this environment is appropriate for a spoken language learner, especially a new cochlear implant recipient.
The only way to learn a language is through exposure and immersion. The only way to learn ASL is to be around people who use ASL, be exposed to it, and to USE it! The same is true, but to an even greater extent, for spoken language with deaf children. A child who is learning to use a CI needs constant auditory input. They need to hear the language, internalize it, and then use it themselves. They NEED sound and spoken language for their brains to organize the input they get from their CI's.
So, how do we balance the two? How do we give our kids the opportunity to be the most successful they can with spoken language and their CI's but also give them a visual language, and make sure they have 100% access through that language?
I had a very long conversation with one of the top USD professionals (who will remain anonymous!) and asked for real advice for *our* situation. They said that there is really no good solution at USD right now. They admitted that the bi-bi school can not support spoken language in the way that we want it, and that the auditory-oral program can't support ASL either. That person agreed that our plan was really the only way to go (at least here and now).
Our plan is one language at a time. Miss Kat has a strong base in her first language, ASL, and now she is learning spoken English. For the next two years, we will be focusing on speech and listening. A CI user gets the majority of their benefit in the first three years, so, for three years, we are going to work and focus on spoken language. Later, we will return our focus to ASL. We will return Miss Kat to an ASL environment and as she ages, we will allow her the control over her language preferences.
I hope that other parents are choosing ASL and CI's in spite of the hardships. I hope that we are making the path easier for those who will be traveling behind Miss Kat!
The followers of this blog know that USD's program has two paths. There is an "Auditory-Oral" program and an "ASL-English" choice. Beginning in Early Intervention , USD will be providing services that are "language based". That means that a parent must choose one of these languages and USD will provide the services that will help the child learn that language. My concern is for children like Miss Kat (and Cal, whose parents were also at the meeting and seemed as frustrated as I was!) We want our daughter to have fluency in BOTH spoken English AND ASL. We are having trouble figuring out HOW to get the services Miss Kat needs to meet that goal.
We were told that if we want (any) ASL our only choice is to go to the voice-off ASL bi-bi school. I do not believe that this environment is appropriate for a spoken language learner, especially a new cochlear implant recipient.
The only way to learn a language is through exposure and immersion. The only way to learn ASL is to be around people who use ASL, be exposed to it, and to USE it! The same is true, but to an even greater extent, for spoken language with deaf children. A child who is learning to use a CI needs constant auditory input. They need to hear the language, internalize it, and then use it themselves. They NEED sound and spoken language for their brains to organize the input they get from their CI's.
So, how do we balance the two? How do we give our kids the opportunity to be the most successful they can with spoken language and their CI's but also give them a visual language, and make sure they have 100% access through that language?
I had a very long conversation with one of the top USD professionals (who will remain anonymous!) and asked for real advice for *our* situation. They said that there is really no good solution at USD right now. They admitted that the bi-bi school can not support spoken language in the way that we want it, and that the auditory-oral program can't support ASL either. That person agreed that our plan was really the only way to go (at least here and now).
Our plan is one language at a time. Miss Kat has a strong base in her first language, ASL, and now she is learning spoken English. For the next two years, we will be focusing on speech and listening. A CI user gets the majority of their benefit in the first three years, so, for three years, we are going to work and focus on spoken language. Later, we will return our focus to ASL. We will return Miss Kat to an ASL environment and as she ages, we will allow her the control over her language preferences.
I hope that other parents are choosing ASL and CI's in spite of the hardships. I hope that we are making the path easier for those who will be traveling behind Miss Kat!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Bilingualism?
Last week I attended an AV training for our School for the Deaf employees. They was some great discussion and I learned a lot. While we are in no way an "AV family" we do use some AV-style techniques to help Miss Kat learn to use her hearing. We use that approach because I believe it is the most effective way to teach a deaf child to learn to listen and speak.
All that is really beside the point of this blog tonight. I am writing about a conversation that happen after our meeting. The new superintendent of the School for the Deaf (a big oral advocate, he used to run a private oral school in another state) was having a discussion (read: argument) with a SLP that was trained at Gallaudet. (A little background for those who don't follow Utah Deaf education- the new superintendent is changing the focus to early intervention with an emphasis on Spoken Language OR ASL-English. Parents must decide and then they will get the services for that particular path) So, I asked, "What about parents who want both?" I was told "Too bad" (AGAIN!!)
So, that day I was presented with two paths. One, fluent spoken language, the other ASL-written English with "oral skills". I was told by both professionals that the ASL bi-bi school would never be able to provide the kind of environment and services needed to help a child become a fluent spoken language user, BUT that the oral program will also never be able to provide the opportunity to use and learn age appropriate ASL skills.......So, where does that leave families like ours, and our intended bilingualism??
They said that each bilingual person has a primary language and we must decide what Miss Kat's primary language is going to be and proceed with our choices from there. We were given two scenarios for how Miss Kat would turn out as an adult, given our desires and path:
1. She would be functionally hard of hearing using her CI. Spoken language would be the language of her life. She would listen and speak and live in the hearing world, but use ASL and the Deaf world as a support.
OR
2. She would be Deaf. She would interact with the hearing world everyday, and use her oral skills to do that. She may even talk on the phone and things like that, but ASL would be her language of comfort and at the end of the day, she would always return to her Deaf world.
We are fine with either choice, but are those really our choices? Is there no one who feels equally comfortable in both languages and worlds? And is it possible for us to make that choice?? Isn't that her choice regardless of what we do in her schooling?
All that is really beside the point of this blog tonight. I am writing about a conversation that happen after our meeting. The new superintendent of the School for the Deaf (a big oral advocate, he used to run a private oral school in another state) was having a discussion (read: argument) with a SLP that was trained at Gallaudet. (A little background for those who don't follow Utah Deaf education- the new superintendent is changing the focus to early intervention with an emphasis on Spoken Language OR ASL-English. Parents must decide and then they will get the services for that particular path) So, I asked, "What about parents who want both?" I was told "Too bad" (AGAIN!!)
So, that day I was presented with two paths. One, fluent spoken language, the other ASL-written English with "oral skills". I was told by both professionals that the ASL bi-bi school would never be able to provide the kind of environment and services needed to help a child become a fluent spoken language user, BUT that the oral program will also never be able to provide the opportunity to use and learn age appropriate ASL skills.......So, where does that leave families like ours, and our intended bilingualism??
They said that each bilingual person has a primary language and we must decide what Miss Kat's primary language is going to be and proceed with our choices from there. We were given two scenarios for how Miss Kat would turn out as an adult, given our desires and path:
1. She would be functionally hard of hearing using her CI. Spoken language would be the language of her life. She would listen and speak and live in the hearing world, but use ASL and the Deaf world as a support.
OR
2. She would be Deaf. She would interact with the hearing world everyday, and use her oral skills to do that. She may even talk on the phone and things like that, but ASL would be her language of comfort and at the end of the day, she would always return to her Deaf world.
We are fine with either choice, but are those really our choices? Is there no one who feels equally comfortable in both languages and worlds? And is it possible for us to make that choice?? Isn't that her choice regardless of what we do in her schooling?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Another MAPing and IEP
Miss Kat saw the audiologist last week. Her MAP changed very little, so he wants to go to appointments every 6 months instead of 3 months....I remain unconvinced. Her audiogram was very good, she is hearing at 20-25 db across all frequencies. Her speech recognition threshold (not awareness, recognition. He tested her with 5 cards, and she has to point to the right SPONDEE word that he said) was at, get this, 20 db!!! She can understand speech at 20 db....ummm....she is DEAF!!! What a crazy world!
She also took the WIPI sentence test. She scored 20 out of 25, but several were not "hearing issues" but instead vocabulary holes. I found out that Miss Kat does not know the word pan....I guess I don't cook enough!
Also, next Monday we are having another IEP meeting for Miss Kat. Her "experimental period" in the oral class is over AND she met all her goals that we wrote in September. We are writing up new goals, and she is staying in her class. She is doing very well, her spoken language is exploding and her literacy is really taking off too. We still use ASL in our home, we attend a Deaf/ASL church and she still is great friends with her Deaf buddies, and we are active in the Deaf community, but right now, this is right place for her schooling.
Her IEP goals are not finalized but they will look something like this:
1. Katrina will use Sentence Pattern II (i.e. The boy walked the dog), Sentence Pattern III( The boy is funny), Sentence Pattern IV(The boy is on the table), Sentence Pattern V (This is my mom) in 4 out of 5 opportunities in spontaneous conversation, as recorded in at least two monthly language samples.
***These sentence patterns require Katrina to use the copula be, such as, is, am, are. Having these patterns down, also requires her to use ing, as well as prepositional phrases, adverbs, adjectives. ***
2. Katrina will use basic What, Where, Why, and How question forms in 3 out of 5 opportunities in spontaneous conversation, as recorded in at least two monthly language samples.
*** What we want to see Katrina do with her Wh questions is use : How many/much? What the boy eat?, How you do that?, Why not?, What for? Where is she running to? Who is Jon pushing? Questions are key to pragmatics/socialization. We want her to be able to converse in spoken language naturally with friends and family.***
3. Katrina will use the following adverbs-place in prepositional phrases, at, into, to, up, on, above, down, out, over, under, in 3 out of 5 opportunities in spontaneous conversation, as recorded in at least two monthly language samples.
***Having these adverbs of place will insure Katrina's ability to use the Sentence Patterns above, having a solid foundation of the 5 sentence patterns is key to spoken language fluency***
Listening
1. Katrina will answer What happened?, How many?, Where and Who questions in 3 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive sessions.
***Not only do we want Katrina to ask these questions, but it is most important that she understands these questions in social situations, but during instruction. An example of how that would be tested is have her read a leveled reading book to the teacher, and then answer Wh questions afterwards.***
2. Katrina will sequence 3 critical elements/events from a story in 4 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive individual tutoring sessions.
***This goes right with our goal of sequencing a four part picture story. The reason to have three? During reading we are continually going over comprehension, one way we do that is ask what happened first, middle and last. We will cut out pictures from the story have the page numbers unseen, and mix the pictures up, and then ask students to show us what happened first, middle and last. This helps them comprehend, and understand sequential order, as well as auditory memory. ***
3. Katrina will answer simple riddles in 4 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive individual tutoring sessions.
***How we will test this, there will be 4-6 items on the table, items that have nothing in common, we will say some similar to "Katrina show me the item that eats bananas and has brown fur" one of those items will obviously be a monkey...before she will reach for it we will ask her to repeat what she is looking for. In that exercise, she will had to of listened for descriptions and functions, as well as identify the object we are talking about***
4. Katrina will repeat a 6-7 word sentences in 4 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive individual tutoring sessions.
***Having Katrina successfully repeat a 6-7 word sentence really works on her auditory memory, as well as her articulation. We need to work on her articulation, to have strong articulation she needs to have the mechanics of oral language down. It is something that we are working on all the time, but we do not want to discourage her by focusing on the articulation of each work in her sentence excessively. We want her to feel confident in her ability to use the 5 Sentence Patterns we discussed earlier.***
I am FINALLY happy with some goals! Since the beginning of this whole journey, I have felt like professionals have aimed too low with Miss Kat's goals. Even when she was only 2, they would only write goals for the very next step. THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE!!! We are supposed to be writing goals for a YEAR! She should make tremendous progress in 12 months. We should be aiming for that, not just what happens next. So, I got out my AuSpLan book and wrote down what *I* thought would be appropriate goals. I showed the teacher and she agreed. Thank goodness for AuSpLan and it's timelines! If there are parents out there reading this, and you don't have this book, GO BUY IT!! Now, the school uses a different system (CASTLE) so the teacher had to explain how her goals met the same objectives as mine, but I think we have finally come together!
Also, Miss Kat did another spelling test, and this time she got them all right! Woo Hoo! My Deaf daughter is listening to the teacher and writing down all the words her teacher says, and spelling them correctly! Maybe no one is as impressed as me, but to me, this is INSANE!
She also took the WIPI sentence test. She scored 20 out of 25, but several were not "hearing issues" but instead vocabulary holes. I found out that Miss Kat does not know the word pan....I guess I don't cook enough!
Also, next Monday we are having another IEP meeting for Miss Kat. Her "experimental period" in the oral class is over AND she met all her goals that we wrote in September. We are writing up new goals, and she is staying in her class. She is doing very well, her spoken language is exploding and her literacy is really taking off too. We still use ASL in our home, we attend a Deaf/ASL church and she still is great friends with her Deaf buddies, and we are active in the Deaf community, but right now, this is right place for her schooling.
Her IEP goals are not finalized but they will look something like this:
1. Katrina will use Sentence Pattern II (i.e. The boy walked the dog), Sentence Pattern III( The boy is funny), Sentence Pattern IV(The boy is on the table), Sentence Pattern V (This is my mom) in 4 out of 5 opportunities in spontaneous conversation, as recorded in at least two monthly language samples.
***These sentence patterns require Katrina to use the copula be, such as, is, am, are. Having these patterns down, also requires her to use ing, as well as prepositional phrases, adverbs, adjectives. ***
2. Katrina will use basic What, Where, Why, and How question forms in 3 out of 5 opportunities in spontaneous conversation, as recorded in at least two monthly language samples.
*** What we want to see Katrina do with her Wh questions is use : How many/much? What the boy eat?, How you do that?, Why not?, What for? Where is she running to? Who is Jon pushing? Questions are key to pragmatics/socialization. We want her to be able to converse in spoken language naturally with friends and family.***
3. Katrina will use the following adverbs-place in prepositional phrases, at, into, to, up, on, above, down, out, over, under, in 3 out of 5 opportunities in spontaneous conversation, as recorded in at least two monthly language samples.
***Having these adverbs of place will insure Katrina's ability to use the Sentence Patterns above, having a solid foundation of the 5 sentence patterns is key to spoken language fluency***
Listening
1. Katrina will answer What happened?, How many?, Where and Who questions in 3 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive sessions.
***Not only do we want Katrina to ask these questions, but it is most important that she understands these questions in social situations, but during instruction. An example of how that would be tested is have her read a leveled reading book to the teacher, and then answer Wh questions afterwards.***
2. Katrina will sequence 3 critical elements/events from a story in 4 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive individual tutoring sessions.
***This goes right with our goal of sequencing a four part picture story. The reason to have three? During reading we are continually going over comprehension, one way we do that is ask what happened first, middle and last. We will cut out pictures from the story have the page numbers unseen, and mix the pictures up, and then ask students to show us what happened first, middle and last. This helps them comprehend, and understand sequential order, as well as auditory memory. ***
3. Katrina will answer simple riddles in 4 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive individual tutoring sessions.
***How we will test this, there will be 4-6 items on the table, items that have nothing in common, we will say some similar to "Katrina show me the item that eats bananas and has brown fur" one of those items will obviously be a monkey...before she will reach for it we will ask her to repeat what she is looking for. In that exercise, she will had to of listened for descriptions and functions, as well as identify the object we are talking about***
4. Katrina will repeat a 6-7 word sentences in 4 out of 5 attempts, in each of 6 consecutive individual tutoring sessions.
***Having Katrina successfully repeat a 6-7 word sentence really works on her auditory memory, as well as her articulation. We need to work on her articulation, to have strong articulation she needs to have the mechanics of oral language down. It is something that we are working on all the time, but we do not want to discourage her by focusing on the articulation of each work in her sentence excessively. We want her to feel confident in her ability to use the 5 Sentence Patterns we discussed earlier.***
I am FINALLY happy with some goals! Since the beginning of this whole journey, I have felt like professionals have aimed too low with Miss Kat's goals. Even when she was only 2, they would only write goals for the very next step. THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE!!! We are supposed to be writing goals for a YEAR! She should make tremendous progress in 12 months. We should be aiming for that, not just what happens next. So, I got out my AuSpLan book and wrote down what *I* thought would be appropriate goals. I showed the teacher and she agreed. Thank goodness for AuSpLan and it's timelines! If there are parents out there reading this, and you don't have this book, GO BUY IT!! Now, the school uses a different system (CASTLE) so the teacher had to explain how her goals met the same objectives as mine, but I think we have finally come together!
Also, Miss Kat did another spelling test, and this time she got them all right! Woo Hoo! My Deaf daughter is listening to the teacher and writing down all the words her teacher says, and spelling them correctly! Maybe no one is as impressed as me, but to me, this is INSANE!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Another meeting
We are having a meeting with Miss Kat's teacher. It is time to write all new goals!!! Miss Kat has already surpassed all the goals and benchmarks we set up for her in September.
Woo Hoo!
We are now 13 months post activation, and Miss Kat is doing wonderfully! According to the school she is:
1. Using 6-7 word sentences
2. Follow commands with 2 critical elements
3. Discriminate 4 critical elements
4. Use and respond to all question words
5. Differentiate between singular and plurals
Not too shabby for baby ears!!!
Miss Kat also had her first spelling test this week. The words were:
1. So
2. But
3. Be
4. With
5. Need
6. Good
She missed only one. I think that is pretty good. (I am an awful speller. I hope that she has not inherited that from me). But we did discover that she is having a hard time hearing the difference between "th" and "f" and "d" and "t". We have a MAPing set up for next Tuesday, so I hope we will be able to fix those things up and she will be hearing even better.
Woo Hoo!
We are now 13 months post activation, and Miss Kat is doing wonderfully! According to the school she is:
1. Using 6-7 word sentences
2. Follow commands with 2 critical elements
3. Discriminate 4 critical elements
4. Use and respond to all question words
5. Differentiate between singular and plurals
Not too shabby for baby ears!!!
Miss Kat also had her first spelling test this week. The words were:
1. So
2. But
3. Be
4. With
5. Need
6. Good
She missed only one. I think that is pretty good. (I am an awful speller. I hope that she has not inherited that from me). But we did discover that she is having a hard time hearing the difference between "th" and "f" and "d" and "t". We have a MAPing set up for next Tuesday, so I hope we will be able to fix those things up and she will be hearing even better.
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