Children with CI.... Hard of hearing or just behind in language.??

Cloggy said:
Another thing, she learns two languages now. Dutch at home and Norwegian in the kindergarden. (and at home when we have norwegians around)
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Are her classmates bilingual in Dutch and Norwegian too? There tends to be a noticeable language delay in bilingual children compared to monolingual children before they reach the age of six. But the bilingual children usually catches up with their monolingual peers. Given your daughter's profound deafness, in spite of her bilateral cochlear implantation and frequent exposure to sound, I'm not surprised to see that she is lagging behind in language development. "Hard of hearing" and juggling two languages at once! Your little girl's brain is clearly working very hard.

And speaking from personal experience, it is only fair to advise you that this kind of problem-- not necessarily the delayed language development but the more complicated nuances of communiation as children grow up-- will be likely to persist in Lotte's life if she does not conquer this. I know quite a handful of hard-of-hearing people (not of the CI ilk) who struggle with group socialization when information is presented in a simultaneous and transient manner. There's still a way for Lotte to bridge this gap and to eventually funtion in the social environment with her hearing peers to the most capable extent. . . but only time will tell. Hopefully it will work out!
 
me_punctured said:
Are her classmates bilingual in Dutch and Norwegian too? There tends to be a noticeable language delay in bilingual children compared to monolingual children before they reach the age of six. But the bilingual children usually catches up with their monolingual peers. Given your daughter's profound deafness, in spite of her bilateral cochlear implantation and frequent exposure to sound, I'm not surprised to see that she is lagging behind in language development. "Hard of hearing" and juggling two languages at once! Your little girl's brain is clearly working very hard.
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The classed are in Norwegian only. And that's fine...
And regarding bi-linguisity.... Lotte has two siblings that went through that, bot in their own way, so we are not woried about that. In the end, the bi-linguisity will be of a huge advantage for her (them).
 
ashleysmommy said:
As far as the AV therapy For me any way it is more about teaching me how to help Ashley. She already sees the AV that will be working with her after her surgery. We got her started early to establish a familiarity with the teacher and the surroundings. Having her implants we felt would be such a change we didn't want her to go into overload. Her teacher and I get down on the floor and she shows me how to get Ashley to associate the cause and effect of things right now. I know it will change somewhat once she has her implants and is activated. To me the therapy is more to teach me and see how well Ashley is learning as we go along. I still have a lot to learn and we haven't even had the surgery yet so maybe I am speaking out of turn.
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You are absolutely right! The AV therapy teaches the parent how to work with the child. I feel like i'm in therapy...lol. It is a lot of hard work on the parents side and the outcome is worth every moment of it.
 
kayla123 said:
You are absolutely right! The AV therapy teaches the parent how to work with the child. I feel like i'm in therapy...lol. It is a lot of hard work on the parents side and the outcome is worth every moment of it.
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I think that that IS the right way to handle it. Actually, AV-therapy might be a good thing for every parent... LOL

But I think that educating the parent is essential. Appreciate that you are involved in the way that you are. It makes a wonderful connection etween you and your child. (children..)
 
Cloggy: OUr child learns language. This should be the focus.

Great thread! Very proactive! Wonderful inputs from all...

May I state my humble opinion? How about the WRITTEN language? (Cloggy, I'm guessing Lotte's reading in one language while she speaks in two?)

I was born profoundly deaf and due to my first language being English (oral school) I did some heavy reading and would be considered a "book worm" until my 20s (four children! working full time!). Many of my friends don't like to read and you can see it in their writings.

Guess I'm saying starting with the written language as a basis to lead-in for the speaking language?
 
greema said:
Cloggy: OUr child learns language. This should be the focus.

Great thread! Very proactive! Wonderful inputs from all...

May I state my humble opinion? How about the WRITTEN language? (Cloggy, I'm guessing Lotte's reading in one language while she speaks in two?)
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You're absolutely right. That should be the focus, and it is. But there's a difference between she's learning a language "Even though she's deaf." and she's learning a language "but she needs to catch up two years."


Regarding reading, it's early for reading. She started writing. We have no worries about writing. She will follow the same path as the other two childre (although 2 years delayed) and so we are confident she will write in both languages, just like her siblings.
(Actually, the other two are learning english now as well.....)

In general, I have no worries about Lotte's development.
 
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