One of my favorite panels at the Moog Center Parents Workshop was the Kids and their Moms panel. We've seen a number of panels before, but this one really resonated for me because the experiences of these kids at seven, eight and nine were going to be most like Lily's experiences. These kids were all implanted with CIs relatively young, they were all bilateral and were all educated with an Oral approach at the Moog Center.
Each kid mainstreamed in the first grade and continued to do very well. They all described their "best friends" when asked about a social life. It was really moving. Certainly the kids continued to have certain challenges like hearing in very noisy places such as the lunchroom and of course swimming. (This topic always comes up so please Advanced Bionics, Cochlear and Med-El hurry up with the water proof CIs.) These parents also had to figure out how to advocate for their kid in this new environment, after leaving the safety and security of the Moog Center.
It really made me weapy to hear how these kids talked with ease and could answer questions from other parents that were posed from across the room. It just reaffirmed for me that even though there will be lots of challenges, Lily is going to do very well.
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