Monday, October 20, 2008

I love the sound of feedback in the morning...

It's BAAACK!

Yes, we got the thumbs up from Hopkins to put Christian's aid back in his non-implanted ear. We've already seen marked improvement in Christian's localization of sound. He's already, after 4 days of having the aid back in, turning in the right direction of where sound is coming from. And, it's been quite the life-saver at the park, making the whole plastic slide situation a whole less stressful.

Christian was one of the lucky children who DID receive some benefit from his hearing aids during his CI trial. Although the tests labeled Christian as a severe-profound hearing loss kid, he surprised us all. We went into implantation with a verbal and chatty little boy, who actually had some words. I don't regret one bit giving him a little extra time with his aids before getting the implant. We do know the CI was his best option for acquiring spoken language, but the aids did just give us an extra boost in our journey.

Just a thought for all the parents who are going through the candidacy process, don't underestimate what your child's hearing aids can do. Keep them in at all times even if the charts, audiograms, and doctors tell you that your child may not receive benefit from them. Your little one may completely surprise you just like Christian did.

2 comments:

leah said...

Yay for a second ear to hear! Having some auditory access (even limited) has to make the playground a much less stressful place.

PolyglotMom said...

Thanks for the advice on the HAs... Lucas is measuring at 120+ dB and sometimes my motivation for wearing them is lacking because he prefers them as chew toys. I haven't completely given up on them though, but we're counting down the days until CI surgery!