Wow! It's been a busy summer!

Well, I just re-read my last post and realized how long it's been since I wrote about the boys! I was writing about Josh having been identified with a hearing loss at birth. Thank goodness for newborn screening, we didn't have that luxury with Matt.

We were only in our new town home for six months or so after Joshua was born. In that time he was identified with a severe to profound hearing loss in both ears, immediately fit with hearing aids.

There was a "salesman" attempting to sell a new piece of equipment to test newborn hearing, so the clinic called me and asked if I wouldn't mind having it tried out on Josh. He was about a month and a half old and I kept him awake for most of a day so he would sleep through the testing. He did a great job! The man put two earmuff things on his ears to pump sound in, and attached electrodes to measure response. Apparently the machine was designed to test both ears at once, at different frequencies. Pretty cool! We were able to show a severe to profound hearing loss in both ears, and very little if any response in the high frequency range. We suspected at that time, later confirmed by CT and MRI, that Josh had malformed cochleas like his brother. Because of this we ordered hearing aids for Josh that could transpose the high frequency input to lower frequency that he may better understand.

Josh did very well with hearing aids for a while. He was a large baby with a large head and ears. We had no problems keeping his hearing aids on, until he was about 8 months old and he started tearing them off on his own. I'm stubborn though, and made sure they stayed in/on his ears. Once we moved to the next home (due to Daddy's job), we immediately started the pre-CI process, to see if he'd be a good candidate.

Josh's ears complicated things a bit, though, as he had massive, horrible ear infections. These greatly affected his balance. He finally had tubes put in both ears at 14 months old, and was finally implanted at 17 months old. He recovered from his CI surgery much better than we ever would have expected and was crawling around the home the next day!

Josh's had his CI for 15 months now, and has been through aural/oral therapy, communication therapy, PT and motor skills therapy. He was a late walker, not moving around on his own much until 22.5 months old. That was 10 months ago, and now he's running around like a little maniac, and climbing everything in site. You think I'd be loosing more weight chasing the three boys around town! I have found it very interesting to watch how his communication skills progress almost parallel to his motor skills abilities.

We have now settled in yet a new home, and I'm very excited that school is starting soon. Matt will be attending mainstream classes, and an an oral deaf/hoh group. He was fully mainstreamed in first grade last year, with a Phonak FM system, and did very well. He will be mainstreamed in the parish school, second grade this year. I think he'd like to be around other CI peers more, though, and I've asked if we could work that into his schedule, too. I absolutely love everything I've heard and learned about the school, can't wait for him to start there.

Chris will be in the pre-K program, same school as Matt, and may possibly be a "hearing peer", too. We've talked about this, and I'm very excited about that possibility for all of us. Chris is already constantly with his two CI brothers, I think he'd learn from the class, as well as be an excellent hearing peer for the oral students. Matt had "normal speech pattern" peers in some of his classes, and I think they were very beneficial additions to the groups.

I've been doing therapy with Josh at home pretty much every day, throughout the day. There are a TON of everyday activities to incorporate into speech/listening/communication "therapy". In our case I believe Early Intervention has been more to teach ME how to teach Josh at home, rather than pure therapy for Josh. We had WONDERFUL teachers and therapists back at our old place, and have been filling the time during the move with good practice for Josh. Just in the last few weeks Josh's skills have exploded, too! I've ordered "Listening for Littles", a great program we used back at our old locale, and can't wait to get it now. Once school starts Josh will also be involved in an Early Intervention program, and will be able to see their speech pathologist, too.

Well, it's been an interesting summer. Matt is already making friends in his new neighborhood. Most of the kids just ask about that thing on his head (headpiece), and then it never comes up again. I think most of us just forget he's deaf at times, a lot of the time, actually. Josh's vocalization is getting better every day, too. His last EEG was clear. It's my mommy hunch that he's had some vestibular problems, similar to what Matt went through at the same age. Josh's a trouper, though, and we're very blessed that he keeps progressing in his communication. Matt and Chris will sit with Josh and me when we do our daily "speech therapy"! I try to do them early because that really seems to give Josh a boost for the rest of the day. Josh really LOVES to sit and do therapy when his big brothers are participating, too. Matt is a pro after going through all of this himslef, and Chris is already a pro having been through most of Josh's therapy with me, too.

I need to catch up on my photos and post some from our long trip. My family has been bugging me to update the blog with recent happenings, and photos, too. I'll try doing that later today. Hope you're having a good end-of-summer day, too! :)