New Year gifts
Jan 02, 2008 @ 01:32 PM
It's been almost like Christmas in my email! As the
New Year came in, so did several thank you notes from
parents. It was gratifying and reaffirming. How did
they know that I SO needed this right now?
Periodically I receive emails from parents and it is
always uplifting, but to get 3 in two days. Whew.
Here's a bit of one of them (with permission from the
author):
"I just wanted to send you a little Thank You and let you know that I really appreciate all that you did for our family this past year. I hardly know you and yet you have probably made a bigger difference in our lives than anyone we have ever known. Seriously. I really appreciate all of the time you have spent with me by e-mail and by phone helping me through all of the tough issues that come with having a child with unexpected profound hearing loss. **** has made such great strides in the past 8 weeks since activation."
I tell you, there is nothing better than to hear those words. Truly. This IS my occupation right now-- helping my kids and others. In my "past life" I was an advocate and counselor as a La Leche League Leader, and loved helping mothers and babies bond in the process of breastfeeding. I still love it; I sat for the exam when Elliot was a baby to become a Board Certified Lactation Consultant. But over the years, what has overtaken my time is the cuase of helping deaf children learn to listen and speak. Everyone needs a cause. :-P As a stay-at-home mom, perhaps I need these causes even more because they help me to feel like I'm contributing. Even though I know parenting and homeschooling in a big job, I like to be in the thick of the causes which I enjoy. It's an outlet. My sister jokes about my "medical degree" which has come about from curiousity and reading a lot over the years. I'm sure there are huge gaps, but I do have a few little areas of knowledge. Recently I was also asked to be involved in an organization which will lobby for the rights of parents in Georgia to choose how to school their children-- at home, in private school, charter schools, etc. I look forward to helping others make these choices freely.
Coincidentally, one of the people who emailed me (innocently) decided that they wanted to post about the boys' website on deafread.com. Gulp. Been there, done that! Last spring, the posting of Oliver's video to deafread was an unfortunate and painful eye awakening experience about what is still being said and done in the militant factions of Deaf Culture, because after an anonymous person posted it we had all sorts of crazy emails and comments, and had to change the youtube videos so that we could approve comments before they show up. However, so far so good, this time-- a couple of positive comments have arrived and no hate mail. Yet.
Our 13 year old sings in Georgia Young Singers of Kennesaw State University. What a pleasure to hear him sing!
We had so many activities and family visitors in the last few weeks that I have not updated on Ollie's progress. However, much progress is still happening. As a typical toddler, he is learning words at a fast rate. I could tell him (with his back turned) to give a cracker to Elliot and he can do it. He can be instructed to go get his shoe, shut the door, wipe his face with a washcloth, etc. Most likely his AVT will soon be asking us to work on instructions that have several steps, and this will increase auditory memory. An example would be to "go get your sock and put it on your foot" or pick up the ball and put it in the basket." Our old AVT used to have Elliot learn a sequence of items... there might be 7 items in front of him and she would ask for three, in a list. He had to recall the three that were asked for.
How do we know that this works, and brings about a normal auditory memory? After all, many deaf children typically had problems with sequential memory (and this is why therapists work on it). Today, in Elliot's 1st grade curriculum we practice "dictation." It is a great way to practice, and we did it with my oldest son as well. He is very good at memorizing, too. Elliot can hear a long sentence (8-10 words) and then write it from memory. The trick is that he knows I will not repeat it, and he needs to repeat the entire sentence and THEN write it. So he has to work on his spelling, capitalization and handwriting during the entire time that he is recalling the order of words. He does very well at it. We also practice a bit of recitation, and will do more of that in the future.
Some of the cute things Ollie did over the holidays... called all decorations "tees" (trees). Yes, every decorated wreath or lighted display became a tree. Except "anta," which of course is Santa. He thoroughly enjoyed opening gifts this year and especially his OWN TREE from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He was the recipient of his own tree (fully decorated) and it came with a tricycle, cars, a drum set, a teddy bear, a gumball machine, and several other little goodies. Elliot was, of course, equally or more excited than Oliver. Our 10 year old got the Rubix cube. Fun was had by all.
"I just wanted to send you a little Thank You and let you know that I really appreciate all that you did for our family this past year. I hardly know you and yet you have probably made a bigger difference in our lives than anyone we have ever known. Seriously. I really appreciate all of the time you have spent with me by e-mail and by phone helping me through all of the tough issues that come with having a child with unexpected profound hearing loss. **** has made such great strides in the past 8 weeks since activation."
I tell you, there is nothing better than to hear those words. Truly. This IS my occupation right now-- helping my kids and others. In my "past life" I was an advocate and counselor as a La Leche League Leader, and loved helping mothers and babies bond in the process of breastfeeding. I still love it; I sat for the exam when Elliot was a baby to become a Board Certified Lactation Consultant. But over the years, what has overtaken my time is the cuase of helping deaf children learn to listen and speak. Everyone needs a cause. :-P As a stay-at-home mom, perhaps I need these causes even more because they help me to feel like I'm contributing. Even though I know parenting and homeschooling in a big job, I like to be in the thick of the causes which I enjoy. It's an outlet. My sister jokes about my "medical degree" which has come about from curiousity and reading a lot over the years. I'm sure there are huge gaps, but I do have a few little areas of knowledge. Recently I was also asked to be involved in an organization which will lobby for the rights of parents in Georgia to choose how to school their children-- at home, in private school, charter schools, etc. I look forward to helping others make these choices freely.
Coincidentally, one of the people who emailed me (innocently) decided that they wanted to post about the boys' website on deafread.com. Gulp. Been there, done that! Last spring, the posting of Oliver's video to deafread was an unfortunate and painful eye awakening experience about what is still being said and done in the militant factions of Deaf Culture, because after an anonymous person posted it we had all sorts of crazy emails and comments, and had to change the youtube videos so that we could approve comments before they show up. However, so far so good, this time-- a couple of positive comments have arrived and no hate mail. Yet.
Our 13 year old sings in Georgia Young Singers of Kennesaw State University. What a pleasure to hear him sing!
We had so many activities and family visitors in the last few weeks that I have not updated on Ollie's progress. However, much progress is still happening. As a typical toddler, he is learning words at a fast rate. I could tell him (with his back turned) to give a cracker to Elliot and he can do it. He can be instructed to go get his shoe, shut the door, wipe his face with a washcloth, etc. Most likely his AVT will soon be asking us to work on instructions that have several steps, and this will increase auditory memory. An example would be to "go get your sock and put it on your foot" or pick up the ball and put it in the basket." Our old AVT used to have Elliot learn a sequence of items... there might be 7 items in front of him and she would ask for three, in a list. He had to recall the three that were asked for.
How do we know that this works, and brings about a normal auditory memory? After all, many deaf children typically had problems with sequential memory (and this is why therapists work on it). Today, in Elliot's 1st grade curriculum we practice "dictation." It is a great way to practice, and we did it with my oldest son as well. He is very good at memorizing, too. Elliot can hear a long sentence (8-10 words) and then write it from memory. The trick is that he knows I will not repeat it, and he needs to repeat the entire sentence and THEN write it. So he has to work on his spelling, capitalization and handwriting during the entire time that he is recalling the order of words. He does very well at it. We also practice a bit of recitation, and will do more of that in the future.
Some of the cute things Ollie did over the holidays... called all decorations "tees" (trees). Yes, every decorated wreath or lighted display became a tree. Except "anta," which of course is Santa. He thoroughly enjoyed opening gifts this year and especially his OWN TREE from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He was the recipient of his own tree (fully decorated) and it came with a tricycle, cars, a drum set, a teddy bear, a gumball machine, and several other little goodies. Elliot was, of course, equally or more excited than Oliver. Our 10 year old got the Rubix cube. Fun was had by all.