Wednesday, July 22, 2009

6 months post activation evaluations


Today was a pretty easy day, thankfully, except for the crazy mother who threatened to punch her child in the face and throw her shoe at him, if he didn't behave while she was scheduling another appointment. Oh my!

Lucas tested well in the booth today, responding to speech at 20-25 dB. Our audiologist tweaked his program a little bit, but mostly left it as it is. Unfortunately, he had to turn off 2 of Lucas's 22 electrodes, because they were misfiring. I'm very disappointed to hear that. However, with them turned off, he can probably hear better now, than with the electrodes misfiring. Our audi didn't seem concerned, although I was. He said sometimes they come back, so we'll wait and see.

We are officially getting a hearing aid for Lucas's left ear. Because CHOP is not a durable medical goods provider, they can't order and process a hearing aid for him, so we will be doing that closer to home. We will probably go with Phonak's Naida, a very high powered digital hearing aid. Although it will not give Lucas access to spoken language, it may help him with localization, and loud sounds. Again, I would rather be getting him a 2nd implant, but since that's not an option right now, we're doing the next best thing.

Phew. Lucas did pretty well in speech. And she appreciated my list, so I'm glad I made it to bring along. He was a little antsy, and didn't sit the whole time for her, but I guess that happens sometimes. We got some new ideas from her, so that's good! Instead of asking Lucas to "knock, knock, knock" to open a box, she suggested we mix it up, and have him outline a circle with his finger as we say "open." She also suggested a book from Cochlear called Speech Sounds, for more ideas. I'm always looking for new ideas!

She agrees that Lucas is progressing well. She reiterated that he needs to understand spoken language before he produces it. And, he's making strides with that every day. By this time, they're looking for about 10 spoken words or approximations, and he has 11. So, she really wants and expects him to make more progress in the next 3-6 months. The pressure's on.

9 comments:

monica said...

sometimes when scheduling appointments for my little guy i have 2 or 3 falling apart around me, so i want to throw a shoe. ha! i can totally relate, i am just surprised she actually said that out loud.

congrats to lucas for passing his testing and immunizations!!

Kel said...

Yay Lucas!

Lone Star Family said...

Good job Lucas!! and good job mommy!!

Shelley said...

I've gotten mad and threatened to throw a shoe...but not at anyone,especially a kid!! Very glad to hear Lucas is doing so well. I read your blog often to see what Troy will go through in the next year!

Melanie said...

Way to go, Lucas! Sounds like he is doing so great.

Renae said...

It's so great to hear he is doing so well!! Our SLP repeatedly tells us the same thing...the most important thing is for Briggs to "understand" first. The talking will follow but the word is meaningless if he doesn't know what it means.

The Brights said...

Yay! He is doing great!

Since we are currently focusing on producing that /d/ sound spontaneously, I have printed of the 'D' sheets from speech sounds and posted them on the door. It works great as a reference guide!

tammy said...

Yay Lucas on another great appt! I think 11 words is wonderful! Guess we have some serious work to do ... we're not far from that 6 month point! I'm excited to see how the HAs work now that Lucas has such good sound awareness!

Ben's Mom said...

It sounds like Lucas is doing great. Thanks for sharing his progress. I hope we can meet sometime.