I'm All Ears

click to view the back cover closer so you can see what a famous author wrote about our book!!!!

Finally, after I've waited for months and months (I'm no good at secrets!) I can proudly release a book I wrote with an outstanding speech-language pathologist who worked with both of my children. She actually started working with Gage when he was four months old!! Over the years, she and I have become friends. I called her out of the blue one day and said "hey, we need to write a book for parents of children newly diagnosed with hearing loss, and for the people who work with those kids." I told her specifically, I wanted it to be easy to read, I wanted it to sound like it was coming from a mother's mouth and not professionals with big words that people would have to look up in the dictionary (yes, I've left the doctor's office plenty of times when Gage was an infant, only to run home and look up what the heck we had just discussed!)
To my surprise, she said "oh yes, we should!" and we immediately got started. Here are a couple of excerpts from the book and you can click over to my second blog I'm All Ears book blog for other information. So thank you Tamara Harrison for your professional input and thank you for being a dedicated therapist, your passion is evident and as a parent I truly appreciate that! And thank you to my friend and sister-in-law Christie who did a fabulous job on these covers. She spent countless hours perfecting this (without complaining!) and she got it exactly as I had envisioned!

page 27
"Three hours had passed and not a word from the doctor. Four hours had passed and no word yet. Finally the door popped open yet again. This time it was a nurse. She came to us and asked us to come with her. The nurse said, 'The doctor wants to see you where it's more private.' I did not like the sound of that. My mind started racing. Is Gage alive? What happened during the surgery? Was this why it had taken so long?
A few minutes later the doctor walked into the small room. He seemed very disappointed...worried...distracted."

page 53 from Tamara's writings
"...The teacher shared that Gage was a great reader - he sounded out the words well, he got along with the others well, and he was eager to learn. The only problem she had with Gage was that he TALKED TOO MUCH! Isn't that fabulous? That's music to a speech pathologist's ear! The teacher also said that Gage paid attention better than anyone in the class and that GAGE WAS THE BEST LISTENER. The deaf kid in her class was the best listener!..."

I've been asked in the past to please give tissue warnings in some of my blog posts so for those of you who know us personally, this might touch your heart in the beginning so I do give a slight tissue warning for the first half of the book. I will note however that there are stories in there to make you laugh also! It's not intended to be a sad book, just a book of my travel from ignorance to advocacy on this road my children have led me on. It's been hard, it's been amazing, and it's taught me so much! I planned a perfect picnic but didn't consider the weather. Sometimes, it's just better to have your picnic despite the weather and I hope that this book will serve it's purpose...to help some family somewhere, know that they are not alone.

Circle Time

Today we parents got to stay for "circle time" at preschool. Keep in mind Brook goes to a special ed preschool and there are plenty of kids there with various disabilities, some obvious, some invisible, some with simple speech delays. Can I just tell you how impressed I am! First, preschool is harder than I thought. Brook was the weather girl and had to describe the weather, they sang songs, they read their names and spelled them aloud. They talked about the months of the year/days of the week/said the pledge and the alphabet! Whew! But they all did fantastic. And why shouldn't they? These teachers don't let a little thing like Downs, or deafness, or autism, and so on...excuse these kids from learning. One little autistic boy got a little upset when he realized his mom was watching and after a few minutes he decided he really really wanted mom. But you know what? The teacher instructed his personal aid/teacher to get his ball and it was some type of sensory ball that she rolled around in the palm of his hand...and he was very content with that, very relaxed. I was just so thrilled to witness such pros in action.(I'm sure I would've let him run over to mom!) They knew exactly what to do. Goodness, no wonder school has gotten harder, look what all they learn in preschool!!!

Weekend Update

First, took Brook to the park on Friday since our speech therapy was cancelled. I decided she deserved some time at the park, you see she takes tons of babies and pushes them, talks to them (it's hilarious). You see here in the photo that one child had to go to time out when we were leaving! Brook put it up on that post and said "you DO NOT climb on that swing!!!" I nearly died laughing! Then, while she had her little temper elevated, she decided to be naughty and say to me..." I don't want to leave, you old grandma!!" I'll let ya guess who went to time out then! And how did she know that wasn't very nice? I don't call people grandmas. Anyway...moving forward. We got report cards. Can you believe that Gage got all A's and only one B. He always has, no surprise there but now, they get actual grades for conduct instead of S(satisfactory) N(needs to improve) etc. So that means yes, and A (94) in CONDUCT!!!!! He got an 80 in math?? not sure what that's about. I have him doing four digits plus/minus two or more digits at home...so I'll check into that.
And here he is reading a Spongebob book, he's seven now and in second grade. I'm glad I'm finding some books he's actually interested in. I even caught him laughing at this book one time so I know he's understanding it.

And to note his voice quality may be a little off, he's having major allery issues w/the lack of rain here in Bama.

Wow, hearing kids can really hear!!

I want to expand on the Krull Family's post since I had the opportunity to babysit my little 20month old nephew today. What a little dumplin'. Ethan is a hearing child, and since both of my kids are deaf and wore hearing aids at this age, I was reminded how well babies can hear when their ears work! I was changing his diaper and he was lying on the changing table, Brook was off playing not visible at all. She dropped a toy and w/out blinking an eye, he says "uh, oh". He heard that! Also I noticed how low they had the volume of their tv yet it held his attention when Dora was on. My kids didn't even watch tv until they had their cochlear implants. Brook took really good care of him and when he went down for a nap, she waited all of 5 min before she started asking if she could wake him. I even came out of the bathroom once to see her holding the baby monitor (which is a video monitor, you can see him in his crib) and she was shanking it. I asked her to please stop before she breaks it and she says "why is that not waking him up?" Bless her heart, she actually thought she could wake him by shaking the monitor. Oh but we had fun!!

Her deaf babies

So last night right before bed, I hear a blood curdling scream from Brook. I knew she and Gage were in her room and it's not uncommon for her to cry about any and everything under the sun after 4pm...she just gets tired late in the afternoons. Anyway, I jump up,hoping for the best, but expecting to see blood from some type of "accident"....what I find is a sobbing "mother" lying on the floor w/one of her "babies" in her arms. She says "Gage took my baby's implant, now she can't hear!!!" and tears were flying from her big blue eyes. Apparently he turned into the "bluetooth bandit" we heard about a few weeks ago who mistakenly took a child's ci when they thought it was a bluetooth. He had ripped one of her stickers she had placed behind the "child's" ear (just to be mean) and she was taking it pretty hard. Luckily the stickers only cost 1.50 from Cochlear and we can buy more if we need to. Anyway, we fixed it back, and all is well.

Little Helpers

You know I rave about what a big help siblings can be in the whole AVT process. Gage can be seen here in the past helping Brook w/her sounds of letters. Now I just have to say, you should always include all children in this whole process, not only so they won't feel left out, but it gives them opportunities to feel appreciated, important, and just as special. If you always make a big deal about how helpful they are, and let them hear you brag to family members and friends about how much they like to help out, they'll be encouraged to keep up the good work. Here you can see Gage working on increasing Brook's listening abilities in background noise and increased distance by shouting things like "stop following me" and "get away from me!!" I'm so proud and he's such a big help.

and here you can see them working together, cooperating. Gage again uses the auditory approach and also works on her abilitiy to determine different tones in voices as he growls "put the tire back on!!!"


Here he's working on vocabulary, opposites if you will. He tells her that he is in fact the strongest and assures her she's weak since she can't push him fast enough (go figure!)
And although I do not have a photo of this one, I'll tell you he also could be found not only helping her with her listening/following directions and her letter recognition, but he was working on her typing skills as well. He could be heard whispering to her in Nanny's computer room yesterday things like "type A....S....and another S". Gosh, I'm so lucky that my seven year old graduated AVT early. He's proven to be an immense help to not only me as a parent but he gives Brook that great foundation and support she needs to follow in his footsteps.

Music Class

Brook held a music class today in the computer room while I was online checking emails. She kept telling me to hurry and get out, I assured her I wasn't going to listen to her. She set the "children" all out, the largest baby is the only hearing child. The rest have hearing aids and two have cochlear implants (according to her). So I quickly hurried so I could leave her alone to teach her lessons....I secretly watched from afar and I saw her snapping her fingers at some the "kids" who must have been misbehaving. I love watching her play school, she calls them by name (she uses the names from kids in her real preschool) and she let them all take turns mashing buttons and dancing to the keyboard.

There is nothing to subtitle, there are no words but a few seconds of music to the tune of "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, Brother John" that's it. You can see that she's going to be an excellent teacher one day.

Books Books Books-Lesson of the Week

I said I wasn't going to keep putting these up and I meant it, from now own (for real) you'll find them at learn2hear. But this was a good one Amy came up with.
Lesson of the week: Books

Vocabulary

Non Fiction
Fiction
Dewey Decimal System
Genre
Realistic
Fantasy
Poetry
Mystery
Science Fiction
Biography
Autobiography
Reference
librarian
Library
Library of Congress
Dictionary
Read
Author
Illustrator
Binding
Cover
Edit
Proof read
Pages
Setting
Character


Activities

A trip to the library: Find out where various books are, look up a book and
find it, MEET the librarian. Ask your child to ASK the librarian something;)
Test out those language skills. (I recommend the 'ask the librarian' to be done
in the children's section as those librarians are typically more than willing to
slow down and talk with kids. MY favorite activity at the library is to read
magazines;) We go to the kid magazine section and they have a few for the moms
as well...it is a great relaxing time.

Find a favorite fiction book and see if they have a biography in the children’s
section of the author. (There is one on Beverly Cleary for example.) This
provides a good contrast between fiction and non fiction.

Um…READ!!!!! Read signs, newspaper, comics, ads, fiction, non-fiction, poetry
..EVERYTHING. Have old kids read to younger kids. When you read a book point
out a few of the vocab words above.

Links

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/library/index.shtml

http://bogglesworldesl.com/partsofastory.htm

http://www.emerson.k12.nj.us/staff/rmkelly/custom/mediacenter/Kids%20Corner/Book\
Parts/BooksParts.html

http://www.edhelper.com/a_history_of_books.htm

I wouldn't have thought to do this really...talking about the "mood" of the book, or the setting, characters beyond the typical "what happens next?" type thing.
Thanks Amy, I'll be using it all week.

No He Didn't !!

Oh yes he did. I've frantically searched the bathroom for Gage's processor. He said "I put it under a towel while I was taking a shower" thinking that would be sufficient to keep the moisture out (uh, no) but anyway, after I start sweating bullets, searching hopelessly, taking long pauses at the toilet w/the lid up wondering if it could have possibly...oh no, lets hope not! He says "oh well, guess I can't go to school tomorrow".
Um, Brook found it, in the bathroom, it had found a convenient hiding spot. Into the machine it went, into bed he goes! After all, he has school tomorrow!!

Check this Out

So even thought I'm sickly, running a fever, blah blah...there was one thing surely to cheer this o'gal up...my new earrings came in from Eva!! Go to www.mymagicfairy.com to check out more from the cochlea inspired collection. She also has necklaces, medical id bracelets, and much more! But, you'd better run while supplies last. Her cochlea inspired designed began over at cicircle when people were coming up w/idea to raise awareness. Also Rachel has new designs as well, here you can check out her Halloween collection and much much more.

I Don't Believe My Ears!!-book for Charity

Also feel free to send in your mispronunciations, your missing equipment stories, your misunderstandings, etc. It doesn't have to be full long drawn out stories.
Send them to deafcistories@gmail.com All proceeds will go to charity. And some people need a little pick me up when they first hear their child can't hear well, we want to give them something they can laugh at.
You can send in something related to a thread that was on cicircle last year like..."you know your the parent of a ci child when..." or "you know you're the parent of a deaf/hard of hearing child when...."
another idea would be what's the craziest thing you've tried to keep aids/ci's on?
Include your name if you want that info published and the ages of the children when incidents occurred and aided/ci non aided, so we know a little about you.
I have like a million I could send in....the one where Brook put her fingers in her ears to tell the teacher she wasn't listening, later to explain to us that she still hears when she does that since her ears don't work anyway...I've got several where Gage corrected other's speech...the list goes on.

I Don't Believe My Ears!!

I'm so excited about this. I've teamed up with Rachel Chaikof (from EaR books, and Deaf Village, queen of charity and....well, you get the idea) to put together a book for charity and you can help!!!!!
How? Submit your funny deaf/ci/hearing loss related stories to deafcistories@gmail.com
Here are the rules to enter...

1.) All entries are due by Sept. 30, 2008
2.) All entries must be 2,000 words or less
3.) Limit two stories per person

We expect to have a large volume of entries (at least we hope) so we know that not all will be included in this book, but you never know, there's always a chance we
may do another volume.? Photos are welcome and need to be at least 2000x2000 pixels to ensure best printing quality. You will be notified in October (not before) if you are a finalist. Release forms will be signed at that time for permission to print.
Stories can be about anything humorous that has happened from misunderstandings, to those hilarious things kids say. Please mention just who has hearing loss in the story so that we all are able to follow, as if it's someone reading about you for the first time. Oh, and did I mention all proceeds go to charity. The charity will be announced at a later date. Your name will appear as the author of your individual story should your story be selected to be printed in the book. So get those "thinking caps" on and make me say "I don't believe my ears!!!"

"Lesson" of the Week

We've decided over at Learn2Hear that we would do weekly topics. Amy (a homeschooling mom) who is co-owner/creator of the group and I will post up topics of interest that we as parents/educators can use to increase vocabulary, use with our "at home therapy" to enhance language in our children with special needs. They can simply be used as talk abouts, not meant for sit down lessons necessarily, and they may seem for older/advanced children. We do this because we know you can come up with the primary words for the topics, like cold/hot, etc. We are adding things that will hopefully encourage parents to take it to the next level. Amy may also add a few homework, school related tips as well since she teaches her child on a regular basis. Please read the disclaimer and I will not put these on my blog after today, these will be exclusive to the members of Learn2Hear.
**Disclaimer: the weekly lessons are in no way to replace your professional
therapy. They are to only be used as a compliment to your therapist and only
intended to add language and vocabulary in the children of various ages. You
know your child best and will have to modify each lesson to work for you and
your family. I am not a licensed therapist and these are simply topics I use
with my own deaf children to increase language.
Week of 9/7
Topic: weather

With all of the hurricanes hitting the U.S. right now, take a minute to watch
a news broadcast, look at photos online, or look in a book/magazine, for
photos of some different weather. Here is a sample of many new words
that can be introduced if not already current in their vocabulary.
damage
flooding
heavy rain vs. light rain vs. sprinkles
hurricane
weather
meteorologist / weather man
electrical storm / lightening bolt / lightening strike
tornado
storm shelter / emergency shelter / emergency escape plan
straight line winds vs. breeze
heat
forecasts
higher/lower elevation
thunderstorms / pop-up thundershowers
degrees
sunrise / sunset
clear / cloudy / fair / mostly cloudy
eclipse / full moon / crescent moon
freeze / frozen
snow capped mountains
avalanche
heat wave / heat stroke
summer/fall/winter/spring
autumn
fog / mist / dew
tropical depression
radar / thermometer / temperature / siren alert / warning
weather alerts
and the list just goes on and on and on….a few other ideas for the younger
ones would be singing little weather related songs "it's raining it's pouring,
the old man is snoring" for example or "rain, rain, go away, come again some
other day"
http://www.dcrafts.com/weathersongs.htm for more songs
also include idioms like "it's raining cats and dogs" "cloud 9" "calm before
the storm" "chasing rainbows" "rain on your parade" and "under the weather"

Amy adds:
i'll add too- you can also talk about feelings during this. Andrew is most
"concerned" about those that are in a hurricane's path. And of course you can
incorporate a map to discuss north, south east and west... as well as practice
your geography and locations of certain states. I have found
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
to be a good resource in general and for things such as social studies and
geography. you can do lots for free there and also pay a $20 to get better
printing features. i have done both.
here is a states page
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/
and take a look at this page!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/weather/hurricane/classification.shtml


hopefully over the next week, you'll be able to incorporate at least something
from the list.

Black Mic Covers

Oh it's the little things that make them happy. Gage's new black mic covers came in. Next on his "I want" list is the black controller, and probably eventually a black processor..? Right now he's still mixing and matching til we can get it all in one color, if he don't change his mind. He does like attention ya know. You can see he wanted the mohawk yesterday.

Bling Challenged

Since I'm bling challenged, this is all I could manage this morning, they just didn't want to stick, but I will practice. This was inspired by Deaf Village where I saw this post and as always, Lera's mom Julie W. from cicircle. She always keeps me current on the latest decorations. Thanks girls!!

Audiology Appt.

Wow, that was HARD!! We could have been finished in 45 min or so, but NNNNNOOOOO. It took us an hour and a half to give this child his new map for his ci. He was jumping out of his seat, up and down, talking, playing, forgetting to tell us when he hears the tones....ugh. The audi is very patient though, she knows we are having major attention/hyperactivity issues with him. The thing is...he was just as irritated as I was, like he was about to jump out of his skin. He said he was bored to death! We played games, we did whatever we could, I think the best thing that works for him is the United States puzzle...and the "race" we do between us, we see who can slam our hands down the fastest when we hear the tones (I of course let him lead). But I have to keep telling myself something that a very wise cicircle mom who has a teen w/ADHD told me..."he's not doing it to make you mad or irritated, he's not doing it on purpose" and that gets us through it. The teacher is still working on the papers for the ADHD from the pediatrician's office and we'll see if he can send us to a group of specialists for this. I really want to dot my i's and cross my t's on this! I need to see a nutritionist also, he still only weighs about 43 lbs, and he's seven so we need him to gain weight even if he needs a special diet. This is much harder for me than the diagnosis of hearing loss I do believe...because this time I know Gage is suffering as well, he thinks everyone is mean to him. "My teacher just tells me to be quiet all the time" (I can understand why, though) and so anyway, I will update on the subject when we figure out all the underlying causes of his issues. Until then, we'll just keep that little man busy as a bee!