31 for 21--Day 4

I wanted to share a bit about her speech and hearing.  We haven't yet connected with any other Ds families that have a child with hearing aids or hearing loss, but are hoping that as we pioneer our way through this, we can share bits and pieces here on the blog that might help other families as they navigate these same issues later.

Our first challenge was to keep them on her:)  Someone had suggested a pilots cap or hat, but it is hot here in TX and I think that we would have bigger problems wearing tie down hats like that in 100 degree heat:)

She does pretty well...I think...and for the most part leaves them in.  I have been trying to find her triggers as to why she takes them out when she does.  I think that the car must be extra noisy or something about the car seat bothers her, because as soon as I stick her in and hop in, they are out!  I've just decided that unless someone is sitting there occupying her hands, she doesn't get to wear them in the car, because they can be a tad hard to find in a hurry when you get to your doctors appointment that you are already late for!

She also tends to pull them out whenever she sucks her thumb.  It must be noisy to her or something.

We went for her recheck last week.  And what I didn't know is that the hearing aids would tattle on me!  When they are hooked up to the computer, it tells our audiologist how long she is wearing them each day!  Four hours is not enough:(  In our defense, she sleeps for 12-13 hours at night, takes a good 2-3 hour nap each day, has a bath and bedtime routine lasting about an hour and spends plenty of time in the car running errands and picking up sisters...so 4 hours was a pretty good estimate...but not what they were hoping for.  We are trying harder to get her wearing them longer and I'm trying to notice more when she pulls them out and pop them right back in when she does.  It is better, but still not great.

We are working with an auditory impairment teacher now on helping to train her ears with all the sounds that she is hearing.  We are working on just sounds versus words.  For Aubrey it is more about the sound patterns that she is making for words instead of words.  "Ma" is what she says for more.  "Ma Ma" is for Mommy!  Nice short sounds and she might make and ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss  for snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake.  We are training her to hear to patterns of speech and sounds.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm for this is good!  Awwwwwwwwwwww when you hug someone.  She is getting there, but it is slow.

She has some new letter sounds since she got her hearing aids and I love her s's and t's and even a few l's.  I use this leapfrog alphabet game to help her with her letter sounds.  You place the letter magnet in the middle, push it and it sings a little song.  "W says wu.  W says wu.  Every letter makes a sound, W says wu!"  It is hard to listen to for long stretches each day, but so worth it in the end if it helps her...you just got to swap out the letters every once in awhile:)

More to come...and if anyone has any questions, just let me know and I'll be sure to share that information too:)