A fw weeks ago the boys and I headed to Rochester and the Mayo Clinic for another check-up with James' cochlear implant. The Friday before we went I was able to have a meeting with his current teachers and therapists and the deaf and hard of hearing teacher from the West Fargo School District. We had decided when we moved that we wanted to keep James in his current school and class until the end of the year. We figured that moving him to a new preschool and then again to a new school in the fall for Kindergarten that it would be too much disruption and learning for both James and teachers to get much productivity. It's worked well and we're now working on getting his new teachers and therapists ready for him. Anyway, this meeting was to talk with the new teacher and let her know James abilities and needs.
While we were having this meeting his speech therapist from his current school gave me the most AMAZING news in the world. That week during school while they were working with James on Yes and No-after the therapist modeled the word "yes" for him he SAID THE WORD "YEA" ..... TWICE...ON PURPOSE! I absolutely couldn't believe it! I've cried several times over. Of course we haven't been able to get him to do it again yet-but how awesome that he was able to do it that one time! I've honestly never even really thought what James' life would be like if he could speak. I can't even imagine the possibilities that would open up for him. I've been pretty cautious with myself and don't try to think about stuff like that too much. We just take one day at a time and go from there.
So in Rochester not much has changed. They were happy with James' progress and re-programmed his mapping. He's had about 8 months of "hearing" growth in about 6 months time-so we're on track and the implant has helped! He's been a little cranky lately when we put it on in the mornings. I'm hoping it isn't beacuse of the sound being too loud. We'll have to watch him closely and hopefully he'll get used to it. In the meantime I'm not going to mess around too much with his growing programs. His growing programs are where I can slowly increase the amount of sound and the loudness of the sound. Each time we go to Rochester they program his implant with 3 growing programs and we slowly work our way through them. I usually don't push him too hard with this because I don't want him to be afraid of the implant or dislike it. We take it really slow and wait to move up until we know that he's completely comfortable where he's at currently. We'll go back to Rochester again in August before school starts and after that appointment we can start only going every 6 months or so! I'll be excited to not be traveling so much with the boys.
