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When people ask me what I do for a living and I say that I teach students who are deaf/hearing-impaired, I almost always am asked: “Oh, so you sign?”But, no, I don’t sign. And there’s no quick way to explain the hundreds of years of history in deaf edu…
I awoke this morning at 4:30 (not unusual since I go to bed before dark as my friends would say-not entirely true, I patiently wait on the sun to go down) and I walk past the computer, flip it on as I head towards the bathroom to dress for the day, thr…
I’m not perfect….faaaaaar from it. But the good thing is that usually learn something from any situation, good or bad and become better prepared should an event (good or bad) reoccur. One such event, sure to reoccur at some point in time, is a power …
That’s the point of Karen Meyer’s article (she is deaf herself, BTW) on ABC7 Chicago. Illinois has a bill pending that would require hearing aids to be covered by insurance the same way cochlear implants are. As Karen points out, it is about “lack of choices.”
Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants Should Be Treated Equal originally appeared on About.com Deafness on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 08:27:03.
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In December I wrote about a hearing aid worn on the teeth that uses your bones to conduct sound. Now Boing Boing has an article up with some more detailed info about the device, the SoundBite developed by Sonitus Medical. According to the article, “Sou…
There seems to be a bit of a disdain by a few Deaf people over the media reporting of Mayor Bloomberg seen wearing an in the ear hearing aid. In Deafness About.com there is short but somewhat snarky comment about the whole thing.Sometimes I don’t under…
Are there any American parents who can identify with this one? In the U.K., a deaf four year old child had his school interpreter taken away. The reason given? “…He does not initiate conversation.” Come on,
Two days before the promised evaluation report was due, I noticed two women who were at the previous meetings about CART come into my class. I should probably note that we specifically told the evaluators that they should contact me or the teachers with the days they were thinking of coming, so as not to come on a test or video day, The teacher had told them they could sit in the back of the room
It’s been almost two years since my parents donated some of my blood for testing to the University of Washington. At the time, they had identified a particular gene that they thought may be related to Nager Syndrome. We recently received a letter le…
One of the most effective tools for getting cosponsors for HR 3101 has been to contact the offices of Representatives who already cosponsor other bills for deaf and hard of hearing people. Caption Action 2 has combined all the available information abo…
 Every time I look back at pictures of when EK was born I think of all the emotions I was feeling then, and it makes me sad. It makes me sad that it makes me sad. That’s a whole lot of sad.  I remember right after she was born and the fear of having 3 kids! Then I remember like it was yesterday…the nurse came in and said before EK could be discharged, they had to do her hearing test again. I said, no, my mom said they already did that…because I assume she’s passed…because that’s what’s supposed to happen. She said she needed to take her. Then my friend Sonya came to see us. I told her EK was getting her hearing test done and she should be back in a minute (because really, isn’t it just a formality?? well, no, not really.) We chit chat, and wait, and eventually I say, lets just go into the nursery and see her. So, I get in there and she’s still hooked up to the hearing test. They tell me they’ve tested her 5 times and she hasn’t passed yet, but it should still be okay. Just to take her to the ENT soon and he’ll retest her. I remember the memories of Dr. L saying she shouldn’t be deaf, it’s so very rare for that to happen. And so many more memories from those first few weeks.
I don’t know what it is, but reliving that makes me want to crawl in a hole and never come out. It brings back all the memories of getting up in the middle of the night and feeling so helpless. I want to get to a place where I can look at her baby pictures and be happy. But, honestly, I don’t remember a lot of happy times during that. I remember anxiety, fear, etc.
We are in a good place right now. We laugh a lot. Ella Kate laughs a lot. She loves her brothers and they love her. She is a joy and a delight. She is such a happy easy baby. Even being in a “good place” I still get frustrated. I still feel hopeless sometimes. I still get impatient. I still wish i knew all the answers. I still wish I didn’t have to wait till she was 9 months old to get a really good audiogram. I still wish what I was seeing at home with her responses was verified by some sort of test so I knew it wasn’t just all in my head that she was hearing me. (P.S. yesterday we were in a quiet room and i said her name and she looked at me. then i did it again and she looked at me again. then last night she did it for jeb).
What I have to rest in is I will never have all the answers, but I know who does. I can’t make it through all of this without leaning on Him. Some days I try, and that’s when I fail. I fail to be the good mom, wife, friend, etc. that I have been called to be.
And that’s what I’m thinking about on this dreary rainy day. Hopefully tonight will be filled with lots of laughter and fun. We have some friends coming over to eat dinner and catch up.
Oh, and I called our service coordinator for EK to see if we can schedule either a PT or an OT evaluation. She’s still not opening her hands up very well and I was looking at pictures of the boys and saw they were opening theirs up at 2 months old…we’re going on 7 months old now. She’s probably fine, but it’s better to be safe. :o)
Hope you have a great Friday!
FOR TODAY… February 5, 2010
Outside my window…
It’s snowing! This is “the big un” according to the local and national meteorologists. We could get anywhere from 26 to 32 inches. I can’t wait! Right now it is just drifting down pretty calmly, but more than what one could call “flurries”. The neighborhood was quiet until [...]
I couldn’t believe it when I read this article from About.com about Mayor Bloomberg getting news coverage over his hearing aid. The articles that are linked from the blog post are just silly. In the first one, you can see a photo of the mayor’s ITE hea…
Sometimes I don’t understand the media. They think it is a big deal for the mayor of New York City Then the media reported that the mayor’s hearing aids “were gone.” Was he discouraged from using his hearing aids by the burst of media attention? It even got the
Today Caption Action 2 called Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) office, and spoke with Damon Nelson. Nelson later wrote back:Thank you very much. We were honestly confused with the call. That was the first time I have ever had a relay call. It was …
Oh girls are so different than boys! Gage rarely ever even looks in a mirror, he could go days without passing one and never think twice about it…but not this chick. She received the mirror to so she could check out those pretty new earrings without …
I am traveling… I just walked down to the lobby area of the hotel to get a cup of coffee. As I was descending the stairs, a little girl, about age 7, exclaimed “Your shoes are different colors!!” I had to laugh, as I’ve gotten so much mileage, literally, out of my odd matched pair of Crocs–one [...]
One would think, after a 2 month NICU stay, a marathon ABR, 6 weeks of visit to the viral specialist, a massive 7 hour surgery, three minor outpatient procedures, and regular visits to the doctor’s building attached to it, that I would be over that constricting feeling in my chest when I think about visiting [...]
My Wednesday was soooo not pretty. In fact, it was downright ugly. Most of the day. Well, at least until bedtime. Then it got blissfully peaceful. Quiet. And oh, so pretty again.The day actually started out fairly nicely. It had all the marks of a p…
As I mentioned in a prior post, I recently caught my first open captioned performance at the Denver Theater. The show I saw was the musical, Wicked. The cast, the props and the special effects were exceptional. I really had a good time and would love to go to another open captioned performance again.
At the [...]
 Caden loves to do workbooks. I bought him a few at the dollar tree today when we were out on our morning errands. When we got home from running around town, they got to play outside, eat lunch outside, make valentines, make cupcakes, and decorate cupcakes. After we finished that, Caden and I worked on some of his workbooks (while JL colored). The first one we did was an alphabet workbook. He found the letter pairs and practiced writing uppercase and lowercase letters. After he had finished A thru T of that, I decided he needed a challenge. :o) We started another workbook called reading readiness. He looked at pictures like a picture of a sun and then under it it said _un. He was able to sound it out and write S in the _. He also did it for Dog, Bat, Cat, Fish, Goat, Kite, Moon, Nest, Pig, Rug, Sun, and Top…without any help from me. He was able to fill in the blanks in the alphabet, then do some exercises in what came before and after different letters. Next he started learning short vowel sounds. He sounded out flag to finish fl_g. and b_t, f_n, b_ll, c_t, and c_p. Next he did some rhyming words. He loved every minute of learning. He definitely gets that from his dad. Ha! He also loves getting praised when he does well (um, he probably gets that from his mom). We are just so proud of him.
Before we went to bed Caden sang the words to 2 long books that he had memorized. He also read 2 of the BOB books to us. We’ve done Mat and Sam so far. He’s doing well with his reading….especially for a 4 year old.
He prayed last night before bed. This was his first time to say a real prayer that he REALLY thought about. He thanked God for grangran and grandaddy coming down to keep him, he thanked God for Christmas being Jesus’ birthday, and he said something else that I can’t remember for the life of me. Tonight he thanked God for Christmas and His birthday, he thanked Him for love and for Valentines day. :o)
As movie theaters become more and more technologically advanced, more states are introducing bills to require movie theater access for deaf and hard of hearing people. A state Senator in Kentucky just introduced a bill to require all movie theaters in Kentucky with 5 or more screens to provide access on at least one screen. It is only a matter of time before one of these state bills passes, because the state officials are beginning to see the ludicrousness of not providing access in the face of expensive movie theater technology being installed everywhere. Will Kentucky be the first?
Related blog post: Something to Laugh At, Something to Shake Your Head At
Will Kentucky Lead the Way for Movie Access? originally appeared on About.com Deafness on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 19:44:00.
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Today a man came up to me and asked for information on “the mines. The Mexican mines.” I was all set to do a keyword search when he further clarified, “the mines and their prophecies.”That’s when it clicked.The Mayans and their prophecies.There we go!-…
Jennifer Andress, a dedicated advocate for families with special-needs children, has recently combined several of her favorite things in hopes to not only raise awareness for Lilly’s condition (Mitochondrial Disease) but also transfer that awareness in…
From the silence of my nightI wake to morning lightI don’t begin to hearTill my CI is on my earI sleep without soundI can’t hear a barking houndSo my days beginNot with an alarm’s dinBut from the streaming lightOf a morning sky so brightIt reache…
Opening Topic for Open Chat Night: Share your Community Involvement
I started my hearing loss community because I was feeling like an outsider. It was always tough for me to have friends to hang out with and find a place feeling where I truly belong. During my entire life, I have been surrounded by people in [...]
An About.com reader wrote to share her appreciation of baby sign language:
My 15 month old son, who isn’t deaf, really enjoys his WOW first words board book.
Photo Courtesy of Pricegrabber |
My inlaws got it for him at 9 months old. He loves to sit on my or my husbands lap and read books together. This board book is simple with only 5 signs. The illustrations are exciting for him. We’ve been handed this book by him so many times that I’ve lost count. He knows “play”, is working on mommy and daddy. He brought it to me on monday and randomly did “cuddle”. He had never done it before. I even asked my husband if he’s seen him do it. He said no. It just blew me away! Now he’s doing it when anyone asks him. It’s a great window of learning and entertainment before a tantrum happens. Plus I love listening and learning with my beautiful boy.
A Mother’s Appreciation of Baby Signing originally appeared on About.com Deafness on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 21:20:09.
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Amy: Let’s discuss a topic which is tangentially related to Auditory Verbal Therapy– and that is, diagnosis. Recently on CI circle, the topic of Usher Syndrome came up. Many parents proclaimed that their children did not have Usher Syndrome, though they did not know exactly why they were deaf. In the past, I have also heard parents discuss hearing loss, [...]
No, not really. Not like some other gamers. I can play - and quit. (No, really! I can! After five hours…) But just like the first Mass Effect game, this science fiction game is turning out to be very addictive.I absolutely love the voice acting in Ma…
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