We received some very exciting news today upon the completion of Drew's latest language assessment. At 29 months of age, 20 months post bilateral cochlear implantation, Drew tested at 40 months of age! Woo hoo! This test is for typical language development, and in no way takes into account his late start. He is ahead nearly one whole year! Drew's parents are full of excitement this evening.
I have been corresponding with a mother who just learned that her son has profound hearing loss. I so clearly remember those first days. All of the uncertainty. And although this mother lives a thousand miles away, we are forever connected by this experience. It is hard to know in those early days that everything really with be Okay. That life can be normal. My hope is that Drew's story provides comfort to those who have just learned, or will learn, that their baby is deaf. Happy days lye ahead.
I put together a new video of Drew. It's fairly short, but shows you some of his greatest loves: cars and sports. You'll notice that he is only wearing one of his implants in the video. Most evenings after bath time, we will have Drew wear only one ear while we do a little "therapy." We do this because it gives us a clear understanding of how well Drew hears with each ear individually. We know Drew hears very well with both ears, but we want to make sure that his individual ears are mapped appropriately, so it gives us a little insight on how well he is hearing. Enjoy!
13 comments:
I am blown away!! What INCREDIBLE results!!! I'm so proud of your little man!!
WOW. That's amazing. I really can't believe sometimes the conversations I have with that little boy now. He speaks so clearly and in complete sentences, I just can't believe it.
LOTS of hard work obviously paying off.
Wow! Way to go Drew!!
That is terrific! Love the videos.
this is so encouraging! way to go; i can only imagine how much work has gotten you to this point!
i love when he says 'i love you'
Wow- he is doing so well! You can tell he's had a lot of narration because he is so descriptive about things (it has black wheels on it, etc). Way to go Drew, and way to go Mom and Dad!
omg this is AMAZING!! We only wish and pray that we will be where you are in 20 months from now!!
Your blog is truly an inspiration for our family in these early days of the diagnosis. Thank you so much for befriendly us with such open arms!
Thank you....
Love him! He is our little hero and his parents our inspiration!
It's amazing to see how well Drew is doing. The difference between where he is and Landon is clear cut proof of the benefits of doing implants earlier rather than having to wait until they are 12 months. Keep up the great work mom and dad!!
Astonishing!!
If this isn't a testimony to what cochlear implants can do for a child then I don't know what is! Wow.
What a great post! I know you are excited and proud of Drew's results! Keep on working with him and he won't miss a beat!
Wow! That is incredible! My name is Steve. Our little boy Cal is 7 months old and profoundly deaf. We are hoping to get his CI when he turns 1. Your little guy speaks so well. This gives us so much hope. Any secrets to the success? (perkins88@hotmail.com) Thanks for sharing.
Hi Steve,
Best of luck to your family and Cal. We are very grateful to be able to give you some hope.
As far as secrets (other than early implantation), I think the most important thing is to be always talking to Cal.
If you see a bird, tell him how "it's a small bird, oh, look at it's feathery wings. It's flying! High in the sky! Say bye bye to the bird." We talked (and still do) to Drew much more than was really comfortable to give him a language rich environment.
Feel free to drop in with comments if anything else comes up!
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