Speech Therapy Bags

I was recently reminded of portable Speech Therapy bags. The ones we mom of hearing impaired children have in our homes, in our cars, at grandma's, practically everywhere we go. We know kids need toys to help occupy them at those long grueling appointments and they love to play, so why not combine playing and learning? Going through AVT (Auditory Verbal Therapy) and Speech Therapy with both of my children helped me be prepared for opportunity teachings.

I have a list I have put together for some of the top 5 items I used to carry. I'm curious as to what parents carry in their therapy bags these days! You can view my list here on Influenster (click here).

We would change our items every couple of weeks or so (basically when mommy got tired of the Legos or tired of reading the same book). One thing to remember about these bags, your local thrift store can be a gold mine! Just wash the toys really well and your child will be learning for pennies! You can find great "odds and ends" and at my thrift store they bag up miscellaneous items like small figures, small doll house items, random cars, etc. which was PERFECT for us! I'd pay $0.59 for big bag of WORDS! Don't let great opportunities pass you by because you think an item is too girly for you boy or right the opposite. My daughter and I would use big brother's hot wheels to drive to all of her doll's houses! It's all about how you approach it!

I miss those days!

If you would like more information on how to be an Influenster, make your own lists, write reviews, and try free samples, CLICK HERE.

After careful consideration...

We have chosen the education plan that we feel will best suit my daughter. We are fully aware that this may change in the future and at that point we will re-evaluate our situation and make decisions based on her needs (as always).

We were very torn between moving forward with the public school she's unhappy at or switching her to the state Deaf School. We talked to many people...including Brooklyn. We have reached a decision (thank goodness).

Brooklyn's problems seem to be social. Yes a few issues can be pointed to her deafness, but most of all, it's her reactions and interactions with the other kids. Honestly, the kids don't care that she wears implants. It's just part of her. However, if Brook is upset because she doesn't always understand people the first time, removing her and placing her in a school FULL of signing children, would only enhance her frustrations. She is interested in sign. We will get her some Signing Times videos. It's not as if she's missing part of herself by not signing. It appears to be a fun 'hobby' and if she wants to learn an additional language, that's awesome at this point.

We have decided she needs to be more social outside of school. I thought I was doing everyone a favor by skipping b'day parties, skipping church, skipping sports because of my fear she would not behave properly. So, I've taken a loooong look at our behavior-which can seem anti-social to the kids, since we work, and go home. We have decided to enroll her as a cheerleader this year, if she don't change her mind. And we are getting more involved with our community. She and I already had an awesome time volunteering to make first aid bags for storm relief workers last week. There were tons of kids there and she did great! She got a sweet note from a little girl in her class that told her how much she loved her and combined with a strong effort on her part as well....she had an awesome week at school. She had confidence, she felt better, she wanted to go...

And how could I remove her from a place that has taught her this...



I mean-this is FIRST GRADE. She is doing awesome and we are proud to say that we have decided to keep her where she is at. She will learn new coping skills, work on her interaction with others and I do believe she will have a great Second Grade year at her public school. We thank you all for your comments, emails and phone calls that have helped us realize-we could do her more harm than good by removing her from her current school. ((hugs))

My Blog Addictions...

Yes, I love blogging, but mainly story-telling! I wanted to list all my blogs here before school was released, several teachers read our blog and I wanted to be sure they have all of our blogs since I've branched out recently.

Cochlear Kids-my kids/my family, our personal experiences w/hearing loss

One Brick Shy...-all of my other crazy stories not related to hearing loss, mostly humor

Mud Boggers by Gage-his blog of his creations, look for many updates over the summer when he has more time to create

Bama Ears-hearing loss and family stories in AL, maintained along w/Tiffani from Sound Check Mama

Alabama PEEPs-Alabama's parent mentoring program for families w/children who have hearing loss; local events, hearing loss facts, etc.

Cicircle News-which I need to get back to! International stories about children w/heairng loss....

I'm All Ears-book blog, inactive unless we have a presentation somewhere

Mapping and More

First, I want to say, Brook and her dad refurbished a couple of benches given to us by a friend whose Dad was going to toss them! And look, good as new!

Nice work B (and Daddy too!)

Although I'm about to leave for the day's final event (PTO meeting), I wanted to give some good news to those keeping up w/my little Goldenhar child. NO ORAL SURGERY until he's like 18 !!! The specialist said no way would he want to do dental implants, jaw distraction or likewise at this age if not completely necessary. He said, Gage does need all that but needs to wait til late teens or it will all have to be re-done later!

He was an angel today, and got the good child prize of a well sought after milkshake....

She however, did not get a milkshake...

She did however fall asleep after numerous outburst and undesirable behavior, one of which included accidentally knocking over a small table at Children's while we were waiting on Gage to get his Xray (to check electrode placement on his right ear)...more on that later!

She did complete her mapping and goes back in July for speech perception tests and mapping again in Oct. !

And tomorrow, I have to go pick up more I'm All Ears books and get my driver's license renewed (it has already expired, oops) so looks like another packed day of travel.

Stuff

Gotta lot of stuff to update....

Brook got her new blue glasses

 

Gage's new obsession? WRITING and ILLUSTRATING his own mini books

You can check out his blog of all his latest creations by clicking link below

Gage's Blog

His weird ci episode I talked about yesterday seems to be nothing to worry about, just one of those weird things I guess.

And for all you local families here in AL, I hope to see you at the park Sunday if you go to the HEAR Center, details found here at BAMA EARS

.......um, I couldn't read in Kindergarten!

Just so we're all clear, I could not read in Kindergarten. I learned my alphabet, I learned rules of the classroom, I learned to play with other children, I learned to color...but I did not learn to read. Brook, is already reading, Gage did as well. This is three months into the school year and wow, I'm shocked. This is without her glasses too! We went to have them(her glasses) adjusted last night and they accidentally broke her specs so we are getting new ones on Wed afternoon. Just before I started filming she had sentences with words like school in them, to me this is astonishing...not to even mention the fact that the child is deaf! So this goes to show you how much they CAN and SHOULD be getting out of public school education!

I'm All Ears

Rachel from Cochlear Implant Online put up a YouTube video of Vivie (who she was visiting in Greece) working on an I'm All Ears translation. Click here to view that short video. If you haven't got a copy of the book co-written with a fantastic SLP/AVT in training please click here and order your copy today, they are only 20 bucks plus shipping. You can scroll down to pay online and there's also a print out if you need to send a check so look for that as well. I'm All Ears will be presenting once again at the Early Intervention Conference in November-details to come. The book is our tale from ignorance to advocacy while enjoying the journey with a silent beginning to world full of life and sound.

Also, I did an interview (along with some other parents) for Say What Club, click here to read that. Thanks Kim!

Cochlear Implants! Intervention Tools and Living with Cochlear Implants

"I'm All Ears" is gearing up for the upcoming presentations for Alabama's Early Intervention Program in Tuscaloosa, AL. If you're in the area, join us at the University Church of Christ at 1200 Julia Tutwiler Drive in Tuscaloosa on June 23 from 8-4. Our sessions are from 1-2:15 and then repeating at 2:30-3:45. We will be demonstrating ideas and tools to help those little ones learn to listen and speak. I'll also be talking resources, resources! We will again present a different session in Novemeber at another EI conference so we want to see you at both! Professionals can earn your CEUs so come down and join us!! Hope to see you there.

I Don't Believe My Ears! featured in newsletter

If you are signed up for DRF's free e-news letter, you'll see that they put a short right up about the charity book in there. If you haven't signed up yet, please do so HERE. Look in the right hand column near the bottom and sign up today. Remember all proceeds for this book go directly to DRF. Mothers and grandmothers love books for Mother's Day by the way! If your kids are featured in this book, please remember to send out the link so your family and friends can order their copies. CLICK HERE to visit the bookstore.

I'm All Ears and Early Intervention

I'm All Ears will be presenting at the Alabama's Early Intervention Conferences this year on June 23 (two sessions in Tuscaloosa, AL) and again in November (details and location to come at a later date). Stay tuned for conference times and exact locations.

I love getting out and meeting the people who work with our children of special needs and also meeting the special parents as well. They are who we wrote this book for!

Also check out our new book prices to celebrate May's Better Speech and Hearing Month! click here.

I Don't Believe My Ears!....is here!

I'm so excited, my belated birthday present arrived today, "I Don't Believe My Ears!" (a little gift for myself). So glad it came, and Rachel did a fabulous job as I've stated before, everyone's pictures turned out so crisp and clear. Of course my kids were tickled to open it and see themselves on the cover and on the inside. Thank you authors for donating these cute and funny stories for the charity DRF. And if you haven't ordered your's yet, why not? All proceeds benefit Deafness Research Foundation.

Charity News

The charity book is well under way! Pick up your copy today! The charity is DRF and you can find us on their site now:
http://www.drf.org/news/
Help us make a difference!! The book is full of color pictures and funny and adorable stories. Order today by clicking the photo of the book on my side bar or click here! And a big thank you to all the authors who donated their stories. The charity is also very appreciative.

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

Finally, after I've delayed everyone long enough...the time has arrived to release the charity book we started working on in Fall. Rachel did a terrific job at designing this book and I think you'll enjoy all the cute little stories in it. Authors include some of our blogger favorties like
Leah-from Say What?
Abbie-from Chronicles of a Bionic Woman
Jodi-author of Rally Caps
Kim-from Can You Hear Me?
Melissa-from Our Journey to the hearing world
Leslie
Kim L-from ASLCI
Amy and Melissa-from Auditory Verbal Parents

click here to visit the bookstore and view the book !!!

And what about the charity??? We chose DRF-Dedicated to Healthy Hearing

"Deafness Research Foundation (DRF) works to fund research to help those living with hearing loss and balance disorders, and on programs to raise awareness of potential causes to protect those at risk."

Hope you enjoy!! Now I have to run purchase my copy!!! All proceeds go to charity.

AVT baby part 2

So what are we accomplishing here? Many things. Number one letting Brook teach her baby AVT skills, is actually continuing education for her, but she doesn't know it. You may have read about this in The Laundry Basket in I'm All Ears. When I knew she would refuse to put up her clean laundry this morning, I said "Brook, when you were little and learning new words, I would give you a shirt or socks, or some other clothes and tell you where to put it, like middle drawer, top drawer, pink hanger, closet....maybe you need to teach your baby some new words." It actually worked, she took the clothes and gave them to her baby, who then walked the clothes to her room where she was instructed to put it on top of the shelf in her closet. Also, I need some "quiet time" sometimes to monitor blogs for Deaf Village, or maybe five minutes of peace so if I can get Miss Never Stops Talking to focus on her teaching her "kids" a few minutes a day, we're multi-tasking.

The Conference

So we were guests at the Medical Aspects Conference yesterday. We had a good time, met some cool folks, heard the kids' ci surgeon speak. Brook opened the session with a prerecorded video saying "Welcome to I'm All Ears" while Gage closed the session saying "I hope you enjoyed the presentation, read the book". The presentation just before us ran a little long, so I felt a little rushed to squeeze everything in, and of course omitted some of the things I wanted to discuss. We did get invited to speak at the upcoming Early Intervention Conference in June, which is precisely why I go speak at these things in the first place...getting other opportunities is always a bonus. I hope to speak more about the therapy side of things when it comes to parenting special needs children. Tamara did get to touch on that yesterday but hopefully we'll get everything in on the next one. I'm hoping that when Brook starts school, I'll have figured out what type of real job I want. I'm just hoping these little opportunities will open the door for something when the time comes. I mean this is what I want to do, advocate for children and help parents so we'll see where the road takes me.
When I left yesterday morning the kids were being really good. Gage had painted Brook's fingernails. Aren't they gorgeous!!

Hello University of Montevallo

I'm so excited to be meeting and speaking to a class of speech and language students at a very nice college here in Alabama tomorrow. This will be my third annual visit and always have good time there, the people are really nice and the teacher is my co write for I'm All Ears !!

Charity

Okay, so I'm in a huge rush here but want to thank all the contributors for the charity book that Rachel C. and I have worked on. Hopefully next week we can announce the charity. Congrats to Abbie, for her success on her fundraiser, she'll be a great asset at the ALDA. And one more charity to announce at this time, introducing Dani everyone. She is working on a charity herself, she's almost reached her goal, and can do it with your help, click here for her charity page. NYC Walk4Hearing.

And I leave you with a picture of my beautiful daughter. She was left alone while I did some catching up on my emails, I thought by this age she could be trusted to eat her mac n cheese and watch "Night at the Museum" in the next room, but I was wrong. As I scrubbed her arm and hand begging for an answer, she simply stated "but Mama, I was wantin' to be a zebra". And yes, that's permanent marker.

Charity Events

Wow, thank you all so much for being so kind about our book I'm All Ears ! It was a true labor of love and it basically took me a whole book to explain my reasons for our choices as a family and to explain in full how we got to where we are and how we became who we are. Now, I also want to thank you all for the submissions for the charity book Rachel and I are putting together. We (she's doing most of the work *grin*) are hoping to have this completed and on sale by Christmas! We still have not named the charity (needs to be at least national) so we will post that when we decide.
On to other news... Abbie is raising money so she can attend the Association of Late-Deafened Adults convention known as ALDA. Abbie is a fantastic advocate for hearing loss awareness, she is a cochlear implantee (if that's the proper term, I use it all the time) and uses her fantastic writing skills to create awareness on her blog Chronicles of a Bionic Woman . So donate to send her to this convention because she uses her knowledge and spreads wisdom to many.
One other charity to mention is Karen's fundraiser that's been a long time coming...Live Love Hear in the Pennsylvania area. Karen has worked very hard on preparing this special event to raise awareness about cochlear implants.

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.

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.