Friday, July 23, 2010

Can you hear me now?

Wow, talk about unexpected news! All this time we've been worried about Gage's right ear that isn't doing as fabulous as it really should...and B's the one with the surprise. And again, I'm being blessed with patience when I thought I had run out. The good news...she got 94% correct on the recorded voice during her speech perception test and the words weren't the easiest test they have either! This was her first time to attempt the pre recorded voice so WOW. Now, having said that, the real world is not a sound proof booth so they also perform a HINT (hearing in noise test). With almost equal parts  noise vs. words/sentences...she dropped to 38%. And I was told she seemed to get irritated during the sentences, she didn't even want to listen, noise really affects her. Now I know why she is this way at home, she seems to get so easily aggitated and I'll have to watch the background noise levels!! So this is perfect timing because school starts in 2 weeks and classrooms are noisy! Even when they are "quiet" they are noisy with one child sniffling because of allergies, one kid can't sit still because of ADHD and one buzzing computer....well you get the idea, it's never a sound proof booth! So, it is vital she use her FM at school and we shall REMEMBER she is a deaf child when we try to speak to her from another room or while a radio is playing. We do this for the most part anyway but I'll have to be more aware now that I have this sheet in front of me. I'm not perfect so I'm sure I've been guilty of expecting too much at times. So again, I've been praying for patience these last few weeks before school starts and now I think I've found some...it's in black & white.

Blakely's have a busy week ahead...water park tomorrow, Tues. we have to be at a local radio station to pre record 'our story' for Children's Hosp.'s radio-a-thon which will air in Sept. next Sunday we have Gage's induction to the Wall of Inspiration at the hospital...exciting stuff!

5 comments:

Dan Schwartz said...

FM is mandatory, and should be in the IEP and also Early Intervention plan; and they should be permitted to bring the FM gear home (under IDEA) -- School districts don't like it, but must comply.

Please see this article by Donna Sorkin at Cochlear; and also this thread on FM, on Jamie Berke's About.com section on deafness.

Also, please do stop by The Hearing Blog and contribute to the article on Soliciting experience with FM

Anonymous said...

I'm near profound deaf who grew up with bodyworn FM (hearing aid version) in public school. FM is a forced filter background. It was very frustrating because kids were talking and I was the only one who didn't get to hear them unless the microphone is turned off OR the teacher want me to hear their questions (actually that never happened. I never got to hear the kids' answers and questions, not that I fully understand the teacher anyhow) . When it is turned off, It is during recess or lunch, the MOST NOISIEST and ANNOYING time of the day (TOO LOUD, even for hearing children) .To this day, I can only handle quiet areas, one person at a time. and they say sign language is too small and isolating - try finding friends who understand you when you tell them that you perfer quiet places.

My point is, don't worry about vaccuming when your child is up. They need to get a hang of it. My mother didn't cared about making noises around the house, but I still struggle with background noises. I just don't know a CI child can train themselves to handle background noises or not, that's something you have to see for yourself and not worry too much about it.

rouchi6 said...

A very interesting feedback on FM.

leah said...

FM's are great for the classroom. They now have Dynamic FM systems- they give a good Signal to Noise Ratio, and you can set them so that the child hears the teacher (at SNR +15dB or so), and can ALSO hear the children around them. It isn't strictly one or the other- FM systems now provide the option to go "FM only" (teacher's voice), "FM + environment" (teacher's voice is elevated, but they can still hear classmates through their microphones), or "microphone" which is just the FM system turned off and the child hearing through their device.

We're learning a lot about FM because the audiologist at JTC recommends one for Nolan since he fluctuates with his hearing level. We're going to fight tooth and nail to get one!

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid FM don't really allow children hear background noise. It just overpower it. Of course that's what it intended to do. And it doesn't help train the brain... it does the work for it. I just hook up a microphone provided my cochlear implant company to my processor, and while I could hear the background slightly, it brought back the memory of how my bodyworn FM sounded like.