Experiences with my daughter.

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DD, deaf/HOH have nothing to do with not being understood when excited. Im a 33 yeasr old hearing cop that has the same problem when VERy excited. Communication has nothing to do with it. It is the fact that your brain is flying so fast that you cannot keep up. sign, HA,CI Hearing, speaking, doesnot matter. It is a human thing, not deaf.
 
jag said:
...........
So a 660 on the verbal part of the test is actually concidered good.
Click to expand...
I guessed it was good, but coming from The Netherlands, living in Norway, I had no idea what tha max score could be.
In Holland, a scale of 1 to 10 is used (10 =best), in Norway A to F is used (A best) etc....
 
In the US, we usually use the A-F system like in Norway, though a percent score (out of 100) is sometimes used instead. The 200-800 (and 400-1600) scale is only used for a few tests.
 
Cloggy

SAT = Scholastic Aptitude Test
SAT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I never took SAT but took Stanford (Stanford Achievement Test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or Stanford Achievement Test Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) and my mother told me that the result shows that I am in Top 10 in the nation. I was shocked to hear that and went to NTID after completing 11th grade high school education.

all kinds of standardized test in usa
Standardized test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Writing skills...

(See Blog)

Today it's official - to us anyway.
Lotte can write her own name. And she's just as proud as we are.

Before, she would identify allmost all characters in the alphabet, but based on persons she new. So "L" would be "Lotte", "S" would be "Sanne", "T" would be "Tone" etc.
But today, she wrote her name and pronounced just the character.... "L", "o", "t" and "t" and "e"....
The connections have been made. Not bad for a 4½ year old with only 2 years of sound.

Another "task" she manages now is controlling the computer mouse. A year ago, we would have to click for her, but now she has the fine skills to control the position of the mouse. To us it seems so natural, but when one looks at a child that doesn't get it, one realises that it requires some synapses.

Otherwise, as the picture shows... not really X-mas weather. It's still 10º celcius outside. Unheared of... but it's the same in the rest of Europe.. Records everywhere.
I'm sure a small change in wind-direction will throw us straight into winter.
 
(From Lotte's blog.)The mornings have become a bit better. (Have a look here for the previous experience.)
Lotte is still waking up very early, but has gotten in the rhythm of going to the toilet to pee, then back to her room and starts playing.
During this time she will not be wearing her CI's, and it is therefore amazing that she still talks to herself. In a normal voice, she will babble along while playing.
After some time she will go back to the toilet for the bigger job. This will result in a loud cry "Daddy !! Poep" which is OK since not complying to this "distress signal" might result is additional cleaning.....
After this, she will go back to her room and continue playing. Still without her CI.
In addition, she will put on her clothes....


When we all need to get up, we go to her as well, say good morning... and that is for her the sign to put on the CI.
It's wonderful to watch how she goes straight for the CI's. They are hanging on the medicine cabinet, and she can reach it with the help of a little chair.

But interestingly, she will not take them before it's clear that people are finished sleeping.
We made that very clear, that when everybody is sleeping, she has to be quite and remain in her room. Not wearing CI's is appearently also part of it.

Today, she started playing outside her room. I went out of bed... she didn't see me (Nor did she hear me) so I turned the light off/on to alert her.
I looked at her, pointed to her room and she said "Sorry Daddy!!" and went in her room..

Ah... so cute!!!
 
Reading your story is so inspirational to me. I hope I have the same success with Ashley.
 
Cloggy and Lotte have been very helpful to me as well.

Thank you!!!!! :D
 
ashleysmommy and momtotoes,

Thanks for your posts,
It's great to hear you enjoy reading about Lotte.
 
Bedtime again,

Bedtime again,

Lotte got orders to get upstairs and put on her pyjama's. We remove the little BTE-bags from her shoulders so that she can take her sweater etc. off, and up she goes.
Up she goes, and - after a while - down she comes down stark-naked. Talking on the stairs to us about reading. (remember, she cannot hear anything now)
We tell her to go back upstairs and get dressed... of course she comes down and comes to us... what parent can resist their little (naked) angel.... we can't..

So, we explain again what she should do. She tries to read our lips but realises she's missing too much.
Then, she picks up the CI (BTE in the bag and the coil) that we left on the table after we took it off, and puts it on. Now she can hear again.. !!
Imagine this... this little angel with the coil on her head, and the BTE dangling from it on a 6" wire. It looked great and she enjoyed the attention. Picked up the second one and there she was, with a big smile...

It is the first time she has done this. Normally, in the morning, she cannot reach the BTE's and even if she does, someone has to pin them on her colothes.
Now, she just took them and "put them on"....
 
New batteries!!

Funny thing today, showing how in one way CI is part of life, in another, how we are focused on keeping her hearing....

Lotte came to us and said "new batteries" so we went straight for the batteries for her CI....
I asked her, "which ear", and she showed me ..... her toy..... !!!


Normally we change out the batteries on both BTE's at the same time (once every 3 to 4 days) but last time we forgot to put the used ones away before opening the new packet. There we were. Two times 3 batteries, and we forgot which one were new... (Tested the voltage... all 1.5V, tested the amps, all 0 mA)
Needless to say, they got mixed up on one of the BTE's.
Therefore, a "lack of power" was anticipated. (Hence, me asking what ear was not working.... just to make sure.)
 
Bi-lateral CI... YES !!

About a week ago, on of Lotte's processors broke down. It was the actual microphone part and processor... So the backup bodyworn (which for us is a backup) didn't help.
Of course, this happened on a holidy, so it took a while to send it off to the company that replaces the item.

Fortunately, Lotte stilll has the other CI, so she just keeps on chatting away as she allways does.
Understanding is the challenge.
It was straightforward noticed in the kindergarden. Normally, she has no problems following what's going on, but with only 1 CI it's difficult to get her attention...

Also in an amusement park we noticed the difference. (Of course we know, but it's nice to see it happen..)
Lotte was playing and her sister called her. We could all see Lotte (we were a leve higher up) and although she could hear us, she had no idea where it came from.
Her sister kept on shouting, not understanding that Lotte could not hear where the sound came from, so we had to explain it to her (Lotte's sister is 6+ years old..)

At one of the speech-therapy sessions, she told her therapist that her ear was in Oslo. And when we told her the ears had come back again, her face lit up. She understood the difference and was eager to get back to normal...

The day after, at the next "speech-session" she proudly showed her new CI....

It all shows that a second CI is not just a little advantage. There's a big difference. Granted, the first CI makes a huge differens, obviously from no sound to sound, but the second Ci makes the sound go from 2D to 3D... From cartoon to movie... (and let's assume normal hearing is high-definition TV)
SO, for all parents out there that are considering a second CI for their child....
GO FOR IT.!
 
Thank you for that story. That is a part of why we are so anxious to get Ashley's left ear done. She is making progress but the possibilities will only double. Hearing more stories like this only assures us that we are doing the best thing for our daughter. Thanks again for sharing and I know you guys are so proud of Lotte.
 
When Lotte started with her CI, it was obvious that even though she liked wearing them, putting them on was not a necessity. She could be walking around without sound, not being bothered about the silence. After all, it's part of her life....

Gradually, she became more aware of this, and she would be quick to put them on..
(I recall an episode where she had a tantrum, let herself fall on the floor, crying, and when the CI came off, she made sure it was put on again.... I guess part of crying is hearing yourself...) But she could still go around a while with dead batteries without telling us. We use to normally change them every 3 days. But it seemed that if the sound was gone, and the coils were still there.... Ah, well, she just continued in silence....

About 2 months ago the next phase started. She notices when the batteries are dead. She'll alert us, and we will change them. Not long after that, she showed that she couldn't wait for us... ....
I was sitting at the table, and Lotte indicated that the "ears" didn't work. I wanted to check the display, and told her to come to me. First with my voice - she refused..., then voice and sign, but she had still no intention of coming to me. She wanted to go upstairs and get the batteries herself.... No time to loose!!!

I love to see her enjoying the CI, enjoying the sounds around her. And I also enjoy how she is perfectly comfortable without the sound. Sure, during the day, she wants to hear and will insist on new batteries. There's too much to miss I guess.
But when we take her to bed, take off the CI (pinned to her cloths on her shoulder..) she continues as if nothing happened.
And I guess she's lucky that she has absolutely no negative experience with putting them on either. She just does it and is up and running...
 
IT's a blessing to hear... I was 98 percent deaf when they found out I was deaf. Once I started wearing hearing aids, I wanted to train myself with sounds. When I was ten years old, I decided to purchase a music tape called Mutant Ninja Turtles "Coming out of the Shells" LOL. I learned the beats and sounds from that tape. I would put on my dad's big big headphones and turn the volumn way up. Then I had this electronic piano for Christmas and it's was an exciting tool for me to learn and pratice hearing the sounds. Ever since i started playing the notes and understand the music, I started to listen to Classical Music which increased my hearing ability. I am now Hard of Hearing to where I can hear on the phone! I can talk to my mom and dad and some others, whereas i couldn't do that 19 years ago. TO me, it's a miracle!
 
Cloggy, what you have done for your daughter was a blessing. Years down the road, your baby will always remember what you have done for her! You are a great parent!
 
I updated Lotte's blog today, and finally put some video on it.
Some "CI-moments" of Lotte... A bit old, but they are great.

There's video of her singing the same song (actually, 2 different songs), one after 13, and after 15 months with CI

Go here


Enjoy!
 
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