Matt and his friends.

Matt has made some really good friends this year. The two boys in the upper picture are classmates of his in his deaf/hard of hearing class. The lower picture is of him in his 2nd grade mainstream class. See him on the far left in the white shirt?

Matt was fully mainstreamed in first grade, and did VERY well academically. But we talked and talked, and he wanted to have more deaf friends, so now he takes some classes with the deaf/hard of hearing group, too. Most of the kids there have cochlear implants, just like him. Funny thing is, he's in second grade, but doing language and spelling work with the third graders in his small group. Way to go, Matt!

If you notice in the picture, Matt isn't sitting even remotely close to the teacher. She is using the Phonak Microlink FM system, and he hears it on a 50/50 ratio of input to his processor. I think this has been the single most important tool in helping him mainstream. I'M betting he hears even more than the "hearing kids" in his class!

When we moved to our new home, we chose to live near our sons' deaf/hard of hearing program. Because of this Matt sees his mainstream friends at church each week, Cub Scouts, in the park, and later this spring on his baseball team. We're very lucky that the baseball league we signed up with has a coach willing to use the FM system for practice and games, too. In the words of Matt's past soccer coach, "I LOVE this! I can talk to Matt, I don't have to yell across the field to him. I wish ALL the boys had this thing (the FM system)." How cute!