Life is Bliss - Lily's Cochlear Implant Journey

Cochlear Implant Help - New information resource

Great new information resource on Cochlear Implants - Cochlearimplanthelp.com

 

 

20 iPad Apps for hearing loss

Here is site highlighting 20 iPad Apps for Hearing Loss.  They range from apps that check your hearing and will find captioned movies, to apps that teach you about hearing loss and provide tools for augmented communication.  

Lily's Dad and I proposed giving a session about this very subject and more at the 2012 AG Bell conference. Hope someone speaks to this incredibly valuable and rapidly growing resource this summer. 

Inside of the ear video

An interesting 7-minute video that takes viewers through the inside of the ear, to the acoustic accompaniment of classical music.  A narrator describes how the sound waves travel through each portion of the ear, and how hair cells translate the vibrations they induce into nerve impulses.  

For anyone trying to understand how the ear works, this is the video to watch.

 

What difference can an FM make?

I'm always interested in how things sound for LIly.  

This page contains recordings of speech through a Comtek FM system in quiet and in noise, through the FM (on the lapel of the speaker) and/or environmental (on the body of the listener) microphones, at a distance of three and twelve feet from the listener. Multi-talker babble speech noise was presented from behind the listener at a level of about 60 dBA.

It is not clear if these recordings are through an additional listening device like a hearing aid or cochlear implant, but the differences are still facinating.  

ihear - Long Distance Oral Ed

Distance learning is getting better and better, especially for kids with hearing loss, in remote or rural places, with a lack of accessible services.  Check out IHear by St Joseph Institute for the Deaf. 

Resource for teachers of students with hearing impairments

Good resource of learning activities for young kids with hearing impairments (or any kids for that matter). It is written by a teacher of HI kids so has language targets, vocab, etc.

 

Apps - An Emerging Tool for SLPs

Excellent article on Useful Apps for SLPs and parents.  Now Lily will want her own IPad or IPhone.  

Hearing Care in Developing Countries

Great article explains promise and challenges of bringing hearing care to developing countries.

Curtains that squelch noise

Interesting article about the use of modern sound absorbing cutains that squelch noise.  Think of all the possible uses.

The Birth of a Word - TED Video

Here's a TED Video on the "Birth of a Word" by Deb Roy.  We referenced him in a previous post. He is the MIT scientist who captured his son's first 90,000 hours and first words.  The speech is 20 min, but worth the time to watch.  Take note as the word water is said over and over and how it evolves over time.  It is mind blowing.   

Fun Hearing Test

Here is a fun hearing test to see what sounds you can hear.  What is the highest frequency you can hear?  

Soundbite Dental Hearing Aids

Hearing Aids in your mouth?  Interesting!  

"With functions similar to a cochlear implant, this dental hearing aid receives audio signals from a transmitter in the ear and in turn resonates the cochlea, through the teeth. It is designed to deliver sound across a broad frequency range of 250 to more than 12,000 Hz."

Pediatric Audiology Free Online Conference - March 14-18

AudiologyOnline Virtual Conference starting tomorrow - Pediatric Audiology-Raising the Bar - Tremendous!!!   Worth signing up if you only listen to Carol Flexer.  A lot of other top notch pros as well.  

Helmets and Cochlear Implant Use

Interesting blog post by XSports Protective on ideas for helmets and cochlear implant use.

Also posted this blog post from Funny Old Life on the same subject before, but it has been updated.

I hope we're only one or two Cochlear Implant generations away from not having this as an issue at all.

Can you tell I'm thinking spring again?

Self-Service Hearing Aids on Your IPhone

via www.ear-machine.com

EARs lets you use your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad as a hearing aid. The app amplifies the sounds around you in real time and allows you to easily shape their tone so you can hear clear, crisp speech. With EARs’ innovative interface, improving the sounds is as easy as moving one finger. EARs can be helpful when you are having a hard time understanding a conversation in a loud room, or when you want the television to be louder without bothering others.

This is facinating.  I don't know if this application actually works as it indicates to improve hearing, but the idea and application of self-service hearing aids through your phone is game changing.

Hearing Aid Museum

Interesting website called the Hearing Aid Museum.  It displays hearing aids and related devices for the last 100+ years. 

AG Bell Scholarships

The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) offers several scholarships for full-time students who are deaf and hard of hearing and who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree at an accredited mainstream college or university.

This is a merit-based scholarship program with award selection being extremely competitive. While the number and value of awards varies from year to year. In 2010, 144 eligible applications were received and 18 awards were granted, which ranged from $1,000 to $10,000.

Audiologist - 9th Best Job for 2011

According to careercast.com  - Audiologist is the 9th best job for 2011.   Good work environment, low stress, low physical demand and strong hiring outlook. Average income: $63,208.00

What is a Cochlear Implant - Man on the Street Video

Interesting "Man on the street video" asking people if they know what a Cochlear Implant is.  Uhhh What?   Certainly demonstrates the need for more education about hearing loss and cochlear implants.

 

Lena System Results - 34,627 words

Researchers Hart and Risley, conducted nearly 10 years of research to learn why some children perform better than others in school. 

They concluded the quantity of talk and interactions that parents had with their child predicted a child’s IQ and vocabulary size more so than any other variable, including parents’ education or socioeconomic status.  They also indicated that to ensure your baby’s optimal growth, your baby needs to hear 30 million words in the first four years of life.

We have been using the Lena System (a little digital voice recorder) once a month as part of a study with the Omaha Hearing School and I always find the results fascinating and eye-opening.  The study is trying to gauge whether knowing you and your child's language results from the Lena system, impacts your ability to increase conversations with your child. 

This month we used the Lena on a day Lily attended preschool. 

As we saw last month, conversational turns decline during the preschool period, as do child vocalizations.  However, Lily was the "line leader" during this recording so it seemed she had more opportunity to talk. We also see a lot more Distant Speech during the preschool period, instead of Meaningful Speech.  The Distant Speech is either that of other children or is hopefully being addressed through the use of an FM system. 

Adult words for this day were at 34,627. That is well above our daily goal of 30,000. Total conversational turns were at 1,660 and Child Vocalizations were at 5,129.

At 30,000 words a day (and this is up at the 99th percentile and takes lot of very intentional talking), Lily would hear 42 million words over four years.  However, since she didn't hear for for the first 10+ months, we have to subtract 9 million+ words.  That means were back to around 33 million words, which is above the 30 million, but not by much.    

For me, this certainly strenghtens the arugement for earier implantation and front loading services.  Parents don't have enough time to fill these language databases up, before the windows start closing.

Annual Noisy Toy List

Did you purchase any of the 2010 Top 10 Noisiest Toys?   Each year, the Sight and Hearing Association, along with researchers from the University of Minnesota, tests toys and puts out a list to help parents combat hearing loss in children. 

Hearing loss can be cumulative, meaning that hearing loss occurs from being exposed to loud noises consistently, over time.  Avoid toys that are louder than the recommended 85 dB.  

2010 Ten Noisiest Toys

1. Bell Riderz Block Blaster  from Bell Sports, Inc. - 129.2 dB
2. Cars Shake ‘N Go Ramone from Mattel, Inc. -.119.5 dB
3. Transformers Optimus Prime Cyber Sword from Hasbro - 110.1 dB
4. True Heroes Sonic Battle Blasters from Geoffrey, LLC - 110 dB
5. CAT Mini Mover from Toy State Intl Ltd. - 104.8 dB
6. Rocket Boost Iron Man 2 from  Hasbro - 103.2 dB
7. Road Rippers Rush & Rescue Fire Truck from Toy State Intl Ltd.-101.6 dB
8. Interaction Morris from Learning Curve Brands, Inc. - 98.7 dB
9. Proto Bat-Bot Figure from Mattel, Inc. - 98.6 dB
10. CAT Honk & Rumble Wheel from Toy State Intl Ltd. - 96.6 dB

Hearing Loss in Children - Great Resource by the CDC

The U.S. Center for Disease Control recently launched a very thorough page on Hearing Loss in Children.  Worth some time reviewing, especially those newer to the hearing journey.

Visit from the Fire Department

The Lincoln Fire Department came to our house last week to install a flashing strobe fire alarm, a clock that hears this frequency and activates a vibrating disk located under Lily's pillow, and regular fire alarms for the rest of the house that can active the same clock. 

Apparently our fire department received a large grant to provide these life saving tools to people with hearing loss in our community.  I've been thinking about how we would do this for years.  In one hour, they answered all my concerns, installed everything and even let Lily climb in the front seat of the ladder truck.  Very Cool.  Loving the Fire Department.

 

Rosie's Ranch: Ride - Listen - Speak

While at AgBell, we found this interesting ranch in Colorado called Rosie's Ranch that identifies itself as a therapeutic riding center for listening and spoken language development. 

Their vision says "At Rosie's Ranch, we dream of providing a therapeutic, family-centered, authentic western atmosphere where, by engaging with horses, children with deafness or other oral language hurdles will expand verbal, listening and reading skills."   How Cool!!! 

Carol Flexer - It's All About the Brain (Part 2)

Here's part two of my mini-notes.

--------------------------

• Sound field device is a strong teaching tool.
• FMs need to be programmed to the individual child by the audiologist with sound room testing and listening in the classroom. All that is at stake is their brain.
• +6dB is what adults require to hear in noise. Twice as loud as background sounds. 
• 10 times louder is required by all children +15-20dB
• Most classrooms have inconsistent SNR. Proximity to speaker does not work alone.
• Six year olds can't navigate like a 50 year old.

Carol Flexer - It's All About the Brain (Part 1)

Had the opportunity this weekend to spend some time with Carol Flexer at the Aurora Leadership Center where she came to speak to parents and professionals about hearing loss. We've promoted her book Children With Hearing Loss: Developing Listening and Talking Birth to Six in our Amazon list since we started this blog and it was nice to finally meet her and get some first hand teachings and insights. 

 

She spent two days presenting on a variety of topics - all relevant, engaging, and spot on to our hearing journey and others. Can't recommend enough to see her speak if you get the chance (She'll be speaking the AG Bell Conference we mentioned last post). 

Anyway, here's a series of mini notes I took during the sessions.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ling 6 Test - Iphone/Ipod App

Here's a new Iphone/Ipad application to test the Ling 6 Sounds

This app creates a quick, easy and fun way to check and see that a child detects those sounds that lie within the speech spectrum of hearing and can be used daily to insure that cochlear implants are functioning properly.  In the "old days" we used a big bag of toys. 

Great Idea!!!

Spatial Hearing Study

We are off to Wisconsin this month to participate in a Study on Spatial Hearing:  Speech and Language in Toddlers who use Cochlear Implants.  Dr. Ruth Litovsky is the Director of The Binaural Hearing and Speech Lab at the University of Wisconsin - Waisman Center.  She studies how young children learn to locate sounds in their environment.  We are excited to participate in this research and hope it can help shape the future of Cochlear Implant research.   More to come.  

Music Benefits

Another study looking at the benefits of music for cochlear implant users. Lily loves her Kinder Music classes.

Scientists Decipher How Brain Handles Silence

Interesting article regarding research into how the brain detects and uses silence in speech processing. According to the article, "U.S. researchers say they've spotted mechanisms used by the brain to switch off sound processing at key moments. "Being able to perceive when sound stops is very important for speech processing. One of the really hard problems in speech is finding the boundaries between the different parts of words. It is really not well understood how the brain does that," psychology professor Michael Wehr, a member of the university's Institute of Neuroscience, said in a news release."

Noise - Phonak FM Simulation and ClearVoice

Very cool simulation from Phonak about the power of their Dynamic FM system.  In the simulation you can adjust all the sound parameters including ambient noise, speakers voice and distance from speaker.   It also totals the SNR - Sound to Noise Ratio, which is increasingly important to understand for kids with Cochlear Implants.  New research is showing that keeping the background noise down is so critical.  While Lily can hear down to 20dbs in quiet, her hearing drops dramatically in noise.  Advanced Bionics is coming out with software called ClearVoice that makes important adjustments for this.   While approved in Canada, it is still in clinical trials in the US. 

New Resource on IDEA for Parents

The Let Them Hear Foundation has launched a resource center for parents and professionals working with children with disabilities to provide a fundamental understanding of the key concepts of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 (IDEA 2004).  

While the information will be useful for parents and professionals dealing with a child with any of the thirteen disability categories defined by IDEA 2004, the primary focus is to provide information to parents and professionals on issues related to the specific category of hearing impairment (including deafness). 

The Let Them Hear Foundation was formerly the group that battled the insurance companies to cover Cochlear Implants.  Now taking on the issue of appropriate therapy and treatment for kids with hearing loss is a very logical extension of their great work. 

Advanced Bionics Mentor Training

Lily's Dad and I are now official Advanced Bionics Mentors, after going out to Valencia, California and meeting the AB staff, touring the facility again and hearing why Advanced Bionics is the leading Cochlear Implant manufacturer in the world. 

We had previously committed ourselves to helping anyone on a CI journey, but hadn't really thought of ourselves as mentors or advocates on behalf of the AB brand, until we attended the recent training.  

What we understand now about Advanced Bionics is:

1) AB is first in total system reliability.  That means their internal device is over 99% reliable and their external processor has the lowest average 3-month failure rate of only less than 1%.  We've had no problems at all after 18 months of use.

2) AB has the best hearing performance with their:

• HiRes for the best hearing in noise, music and speech development.  And with HiRes 120 I think people are hearing even better, especially music.
• Auto Sound - You don't ever have to change the programs. You set it and forget it.  Even on the BWP, we set the controls and never move them.  The Input Dynamic Range (IDR)/Window is 80dbs, that is the widest of any implant, letting in the most sound possible.
• T-Mic for the most natural hearing and wireless connectivity.  We don't use the T-mic yet, but compared to a regular BTE mic, there are huge sound and usability advantages.  We love the off the ear Mic with the BWP which allows nothing on the ear, but still maintains the same language and listening advantages as the Harmony.  This is critical for a pre-language learner.  

3) Upgradeability without surgery - This was a big one when we made our choice. The internal device is so sophisticated, the software potential is tremendous.  Will Lily have to have another surgery in her lifetime?  I'm certain of it.  But who knows when and what that next iteration will be.  Hopefully it is 20+ years from now. 

4) Outstanding Service - We've had a great experience with the staff, but didn't really test out the service before we selected AB.  Now I would call the company if I was making a choice again and ask dozens of questions.  Also I can't testify to the customer service/technical support because we've never had to use it. That is a good testimony.

For me some of the new comparative studies done by independent centers around the world are a big reason I am excited by AB.  These studies demonstrate that the Advanced Bionics implant with some of its unique components is outperforming its competitors.  While we guessed that their sound performance was best when making this decision for Lily, now the research is confirming it  (citations and research available on request).

Blog Friends

I am an active reader of many CI kid blogs but don't comment much.  Occasionally, in the early days, I would send off emails asking questions and hoping I too would have a CI Rock Star kid. 

One of our favorite blogs was and still is Turn on My Ears, featuring Drew and his amazing family.  We met them this summer at the Moog Parents Workshop, although I felt like I already knew them.  Then we had the opportunity to meet them again in Columbus, OH last week.  Drew is doing amazingly well.  

One of the first things that Drew's Mom said to us was something like don't you wish we could have fast forwarded to this day to know that they would be talking AMAZINGLY well already.  We could have saved months of crying in those early days.   YES!  Lily's Dad and I totally agree!!

Here are Drew and Lily talking about being "King of the World." 

We are also thinking about our friend Landri who we met through our Blog and was activated with her CI this week.  Can't wait to hear this little one tell us she's "King of the World."  It won't be long.

Upcoming Moog Center Workshops

As you may remember we had a fantastic experience this summer attending the "Helping Your Children Learn to Talk" workshop in St. Louis. It was without a doubt one of the best couple days you can spend and well worth the investment. Well, the Moog Center is taking applications for this summer's training and offering a variety of other programs for parents and educators alike. Here's a listing. Check it out and don't forget to tell your educational professionals as well.

January 21-22, 2010 - $300 

Pediatric Cochlear Implant Programming 

A workshop for cochlear implant audiologists who work with infants and children. This workshop will focus on cochlear implant programming techniques for optimizing access to sound for infants and young children.  Protocols for monitoring progress in children at various developmental levels will be discussed.  Instruction will include live demonstrations, videos, and presentation of relevant case studies.  Seating for this interactive workshop is limited. CEU’s available.  Contact:  Connie Ciavirella at 314-692-7172 or cciavirella@moogcenter.org 

 

February 18-20, 2010 - $350 

The Earlier They Get Started, The Faster They Learn To Talk. 

For teachers and SLPs providing early intervention services to children with hearing loss. This workshop will focus on techniques for helping parents work with their own children and strategies for professionals working with very young children to develop spoken language skills.  Instruction will include live demonstrations, videos and hands-on opportunities.  Seating is limited. CEU’s available.  Contact:  Betsy Moog Brooks at 314-692-7172 or bbrooks@moogcenter.org 

 

July 7-11, 2010 - $150 

Helping Your Child Learn To Talk 

A Workshop for Parents of Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, ages 2 to 5 

This four-day workshop will provide parents with opportunities to learn strategies to help their children learn to talk while their children receive daily individualized instruction by a staff member of the Moog Center.  Each day is packed full of activities for the children and information for the parents.  Children over age 3 may receive speech and language evaluations, for an additional fee.  Contact:  Betsy Moog Brooks at 314-692-7172 or bbrooks@moogcenter.org 

 

September 2010 – Date to be determined. $150 

Strategies for Professionals of Mainstreamed Students with Hearing Loss 

For SLPs and teachers who have a student with hearing loss in their classroom. Learn effective strategies that work with students with hearing loss who are mainstreamed into your school setting.  Topics to be 

discussed include:  hearing loss and effects on language, academic difficulties, assistive listening devices, and support services. Contact:  Connie Ciavirella at 314-692-7172 or cciavirella@moogcenter.org 

 

October 2010 – Date to be determined. $300 

From Assessment to Practice:  Developing Spoken Language Skills in Children with Hearing Loss For SLPs and Teachers of the Deaf 

This workshop will focus on accurately assessing language levels, identifying areas for language instruction, selecting appropriate goals and objectives, and planning lessons for children with hearing loss.  Topics include:  Using norm-referenced language evaluation tools to diagnose strengths and weaknesses, using criterion-referenced language rating forms to select goals and mark progress, and implementing targets into a variety of language lessons. CEUs available. Contact:  Connie Ciavirella at 314-692-7172 or cciavirella@moogcenter.org 

 

November 2010 – Date to be determined. $300 

Conversational Language Activities for Deaf Children For SLPs and Teachers of the Deaf 

This workshop will focus on implementing language goals into a variety of conversational language activities for children with hearing loss.  Topics include:  Modeling and imitation techniques for correction and expansion of language, selecting appropriate language goals, planning conversational language activities to meet language goals and a variety of ideas for many different kinds of conversational activities.  This workshop will also include classroom observations and some hands-on practice. CEUs available.  Contact:  Connie Ciavirella at 314-692-7172 or cciavirella@moogcenter.org 

 

For your convenience, the Moog Center offers onsite workshops for larger groups.  If your staff or district is interested in scheduling one of the above workshops onsite, please contact Connie Ciavirella at 314-692-7172 or cciavirella@moogcenter.org 

 

Visit the website at www.moogcenter.org for complete workshop listings and information about the Moog Center’s publications.

Online Music Therapy Courses and other CI Experts

Last week, I watched a free online session with Chris Barton, board certified music therapist, hosted by Advanced Bionics. Chris  is an award-winning composer, performer and music therapy guru.  I think I've raved about her before, but this online session reminded me of how well she understands kids with CIs and how music therapy/music training is a must for kids who are learning to listen and talk.

The session I attended was primarily a Q and A, but there are at least seven other free online courses with Chris Barton in Advanced Bionics's Listening Room. 

There are also lots of other sessions in their eLearning Library by some of my favorite CI experts like Dave Sindrey, Mary Koch and Amy Robbins. Specially look at Amy Robbin's intervention Activities for ITSIs (Infants and Toddlers with Cochlear Implants).  Check it out!

AB Harmony vs Nucleus 5

Advanced Bionics has posted a new comparison chart versus Cochlear's latest Nucleus 5. Click on the link for more insights.

3-D Scanner May Lead to Better Hearing Aids

Ran into an interesting article in the latest issue of Fast Company that looks at MIT's latest 3-D digital ear canal scanner. The technology will enable a better reading of the shapes and shifts in the ear canal than the traditional silicone ear molds. While the technology isn't likely to effect Lily and other cochlear implant users, it could be a big advance for those requiring hearing aids. MIT hopes to commercialize the technology by 2011.

Cochlear Implant Resources and Services by Company

Here's a new one-stop-shop and resource for professionals working with students with cochlear implants that was developed by the Illinois School for the Deaf.  It focuses on resources and services offered by each implant company.

Education Resource for Public School Teachers on Hearing Loss

Interesting resource developed in Missouri to educate public school mainstream teachers about childhood deafness and to help them understand communication and educational issues relevant to children who are deaf and hard of hearing who use hearing aids and cochlear implants.  It's just the basics, but provides a great introduction.

Research on the Importance of Adult-Child Conversations to Language Development

In the latest LENA Newsletter, the featured expert was Dr. Frederick Zimmerman, chair of the Department of Health Services in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.  As the lead researcher, he discussed "Teaching by Listening: The Importance of Adult-Child Conversations to Language Development," which was published in the July issue of Pediatrics.  The following summarizes the findings of the study.

The results supported our hypothesis that parent-child interaction is best when it's a two-way street. We found that each additional 1,000 adult words a child was exposed to led to a .44 increase in the child's PLS-normed score, whereas for every additional 100 conversational turns there was a 1.92 increase in the PLS-normed score. For both stimuli, these changes were approximately one standard deviation from the norm. Therefore, in that standardized sense, adult-child conversations were approximately six times as powerful at aiding language development as adult speech input independent of conversational exchanges.

Communicating Her Needs Or Stalling Tactics

Lily is quite the communicator. She's using her new skills to try and convince us to let her stay up later at night. Last night we came home from dinner at Grandma's and before Lily headed upstairs to put on her pajamas she ran over to the kitchen table, jumped into her booster seat, buckled herself in, and said, "I play cards now Mommy". She was referring to activity cards that she played with Mommy earlier in the day from Advanced Bionics Listening Room. She knew that it would be hard for us to say no to just a little more language learning. Clever girl. Here's a photo.

Tonight was a little different. We've been reading the book "Baby Can't Sleep." In it the daddy tries to get baby to fall asleep by counting sheep to her (One sheep chasing fireflies, two sheep playing guitar, three sheep staring at stars, etc.). Lily was a little restless and reached for me to pick her up and said "I count sheep, I count sheep, I count sheep," which sounds remarkably like "I can't sleep." Once I made the connection we counted a few sheep and she promptly relaxed and fell asleep. Ahh the power of language.

Moog Center's Parent Workshop - We're in Love! Part 1

We spent the last few days at the Moog Center's Parent Workshop.   We are in love with this place.  The workshop had about 15 families with children from one to five years old who had hearing loss.  Some kids wore hearing aids, many wore Cochlear Implants and a few wore both.   

The families were from all over the country and seriously committed to helping their kids learn to talk and listen.  The last question of the seminar from the parents was when can we come back?

The workshop lasted four days and covered topics such as Modeling and Imitation, Simulated Language Learning, Audiology, Benchmarks, Capitalizing on Routine Activities, Mapping, IEPs, Teaching Family and Friends about Communicating with your Child, Parents Share and a Kids Panel made up of first and second graders and their Moms.  Betsy Moog Brooks delivered most of the sessions and seemed to have an answer for every question that the parents asked.   She meant business and was clearly there to make an impact on kids with hearing impairments.   

Bestsy’s mother, Jean Sachar Moog was also there and presented research on Early Educational Placement and Later Language Outcomes.  She highlighted the significant impact two-year-old classes for D/HOH kids can make in later language outcomes.  These two women are leading the way in helping children learn to talk and listen.  What a thrill to be a little a part of their lives.

The research they gave us about the Moog Center says that at three years old 81% of their kids were at or above their age level in receptive vocabulary and 86% were at or above their age level in expressive vocabulary.  At age five, 94% were at or above their age level in receptive vocabulary, 97% in expressive vocabulary, 91% in receptive language and 77% in expressive language.

It seemed nothing at the Center happened by accident.  Everything was recorded, strategic and intentional.  We would move to St Louis in a minute if Lily was not thriving from the services in our area.   Lily had an hour of speech therapy everyday with Laurie, a Moog SLP, and spent the rest of the time talking with Moog teachers in the toddler room.  At the end of the workshop, we knew everything Lily worked on and where they believed we should put our “language and speech” energy.  

They said we should focus on requiring Lily to use two and three word sentences every time she talks.   Lily has a huge receptive and expressive vocabulary, but just needs to move towards more complex sentences.   If Lily doesn’t attempt a two or three word sentence after we model it, they said we shouldn’t give her what she wants.  

This is their model of modeling and imitation.   It seems to already be working.  Lily is talking non-stop and we don’t know where she is coming up with some of the words and sentences she is putting together.  Some of that started before we got to St Louis, but the "strategy" seems to definitely be accelerating her language.  

The facility itself was beautiful, incredibly quiet for the best learning environment and run with an eye for detail.   We are re-energized!!!

Here are some photos of the Moog Center.

(Note the metal slide and static-free play structure)

Garmin GPS - Learning To Speak With A British Accent

This past week our family went to St. Louis to visit the Moog Center for an intensive workshop (more info about our experiences to follow). 

Since we're not from the area we borrowed my Mom's Garmin GPS system to get around town in our rental car. We programmed each trip around the city and it gladly spouted directions (although not 100% accurately). We set the Garmin's "voice" to speak with a British accent. Lily quite enjoyed it and after a while she began to imitate the words, "Turn Left", "Turn Right" at every turn. By the end of the weekend we began to wonder if she would eventually learn to speak with a British accent. Who knows, maybe we should use it more often ;-)

AB On The Brain

So as we're going back over notes and resources from the past two years in preparation for our presentation at Advanced Bionics, Lily's Mom stumbled upon another great blog by a recent AB user and a post about why she chose AB. Good reading and a great summary of AB benefits.

Comprehensive Hearing Resource for Parents and Professionals

We received a BEGINNINGS manual at a conference we attended a few months ago.  This is the most comprehensive hearing manual I have seen in our hearing journey.  It gives brief, but thorough information about early intervention, communication options (great videos), assistive technology, audiology, school issues and legislation.  It is especially ideal for parents of newly identified kids and those who are early in their journey.

I just discovered they have an online version of the manual and that they offer additional information through a newsletter and videos which may be helpful to parents of kids who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

The mission of BEGINNINGS is to inform and empower parents as they make decisions about their child. In addition, BEGINNINGS is committed to providing technical assistance to professionals who work with these families to help the children achieve full participation in society. 

BEGINNINGS a non-profit agency, located in North Carolina, works to provide an objective approach to meeting the diverse needs of families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing and professionals who serve them.

Speaking Gigs

In celebration of Lily's one-year hearing birthday on Wednesday, we've decided to undertake a new venture. We are currently developing a presentation revolving around our journey from initial days of diagnosis through our daily adventures in learning to listen and talk. If you have a need for speakers from the parents' perspective, contact us for availability. 

Comprehensive Article on Hearing Loss and Causes

Not a new article, but an excellent summary titled Newborn Hearing Screening — A Silent Revolution by Morton and Nance in the New England Journal of Medicine (May, 2006) about causes of hearing loss, both environmental and genetic. 

Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) and Tympanometry

Interesting article and photos about which parts of the hearing system are screened with an Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) test and a Tympanometry.   Lily had a OAE in the hospital on Day 10 (as part of the mandatory newborn hearing screen), one at the first audiologist's office and another one at the second audiologist's office.   The audiologists have also used the tympanometry on a couple of occasions and Lily's eardrums work just fine. 

Here is a sample of the article to get you really excited:

"The three main parts of the ear are the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear (cochlea). When the hearing system is functioning as it should, sounds enter through ear canal, causing the eardrum (tympanic membrane) to vibrate, which in turn moves three small bones in the middle ear (hammer, anvil, stirrup).  This movement stimulates fluid movement in the inner ear (cochlea) and the sound signal is transmitted through a nerve to the brain. At the same time, the inner ear emits small signals, called  "otoacoustic emissions" that move back through the middle ear and into the ear canal.  These emissions are picked up and analyzed by the OAE screening equipment."

"A health care provider can often perform tympanometry which measures the movement of the eardrum.  This helps the provider know whether there is fluid/infection in the middle ear.  Tympanometry cannot test the functioning of the inner ear."

AB Hearing Journey for Babies and Toddlers

A new section on Advanced Bionics Hearing Journey website, targeting babies and toddlers, has just been   launched.  This is an excellent site for free activities and resources to support the development of speech, language and listening skills.  The site features works from Dave Sindrey, AVT and Chris Barton, Music Therapist.