There are many cute little clips out there of kids dancing to music hearing it with their cochlear implants. I always feel like posting the videos the of E dancing when he isn't wearing any hearing devices. It looks the same. He feels the vibration through our wood floors. I guess I have an evil streak. heehee.
Seriously, though, I do think the CI has made a difference in his enjoyment of some things. That's okay. He's always enjoyed blowing in the harmonica, but recently he's really gotten into it. He knows what he's hearing and likes it. And that's kind of fun.
I'm still in the process of editing 2007 home movies. I got a chunk done for New Year's Eve. It's a tradition I'd like to keep up: watching the year's home movies on New Year's Eve. It'll force me to keep up with editing and get them off my hard drive!
I've got a few stragglers. I've spent the past few evenings making a movie about our fun day with friends in Chatty LAST JUNE! It's amazing how long it takes to get such a short bit of movie. But I thought, hey, may as well share it with the people whose company we enjoyed that day (since I keep up with most of you over the internet anyway). Enjoy...for what it's worth...(sorry the resolution is lost a bit in the compressing)
Ellis likes to look at himself in the LCD screen of my cam, which can flipout and turn around to face him. I caught him making some hilarious faces. (Did you also spot the stud in the background doing dishes? whatta guy)
Ellis's CI was activated on July 24. It is now August 25. So, how is E doing?
Well, not bad!
Sound awareness is the first step in the CI training process. Learning how to use the CI is often called "rehabilitation", but I find that term kind of yuck. I want to ask, Rehabilitation from what? So on this blog, I will call it CI Training, since it is a tool that needs to be learned how to use.
He's not responding to sounds spontaneously yet. Though we do notice that about every 500th time we call his name, he does respond--in a meaningful way, not just the coincidental nod. If we are in a controlled environment, playing one of our new speech therapy games, he's on the money. He's totally hearing it!!
In this video, we are going through the 6 Ling Sounds: aah, eee, ooh, mm, ssh, ss, which span the frequency of sounds. (Except I forgot Sss in the movie. Oh well.) I get him to focus by holding the train track up, covering my mouth, and when he responds I give him the track. He thinks it's great fun, and later I catch him "talking" to the train tracks. Ha!!
A word from the Technical Advisory Board: Okay, still working on video-editing skillz. So I forgot to delete almost 2 mins of nothing at the end. The video is only 2'50". I tried to make it equally accessible to deaf and hearing. Though my voice-over at the beginning is a little rough, and I didn't subtitle every little incidental comment I may have made, like "Do you have a silly train track on your head?". And there's happy train music at the end.
Ellis's new cochlear implant was activated on Tuesday. Overall he did really well. He looked around, and for the most part, seemed interested. At one point during a break, I signed to him, "Do you want to hear more?" and he looked back and then nodded. But then he also nodded for a cracker. I'm not entirely sure if he understands "hear" yet. The cool thing, though, is that we have sign, so we can talk about what's happening.
Since we've been home, he's been tolerant of the CI, but not loving or hating. I'm going very slowly with it. If he seems bothered, I pull down the volume (we have some control over volume). If we're playing with a familiar toy that been making sound all along, I push the volume up a bit, and he seems curious.
By late afternoon, he's ready for quiet again. I don't blame him.
I made a movie of the experience. I subtitled the part with the technician, in case you're deaf, but somehow they went kind of awry a bit towards the end, especially in the low-resolutioning of it for web use. But the important parts seem to have come through okay--just the part with the technician explaining stuff that got messed up. My apologies. I've already spent way too much time on a 5 minute movie.
In the room with us, was the technician, my sister, Ellis's regular EI teacher, and a teacher from CHOP.
Update: sorry to those who can't see it. Google says that it's "processing". I'm not sure what that means, nor why it was seen before but not now. I'll give it a little more time then try again if there continues to be a problem.
Another update: if it doesn't work with Google, try YouTube (wh. may take a few mins to process, if you're just tuning in):
Ellis loves his popsicles. Those of you who know ASL will enjoy his little kid signing (I gave a few clues here and there for those who don't--hope you can read it now that it's all low resolution.)
He loves to be involved. I mean LOVES it. If there's action, he's there. He now helps us unload the dishwasher. If we even so much as crack open the dishwasher door, he runs over and signs "help." There are two meals I can count on for his help if Daddy's working late and can't offer distraction from cooking endeavors, spaghetti and taco salad.
Here we have Ellis cooking the spaghetti sauce. Adding a touch of oregano. He's very serious about it. The stove isn't on, though I had to stop the movie to stop him from messing with the knobs, which he isn't allowed to touch. (You can hear me stomp to get his attention towards the end.) I just like to think that I'm investing now in future skills later.
The day after Thanksgiving, my mom, sister, and I went to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Aside from a brief trip to the Rodin Museum when he was but a tender one month old, this was Ellis's first real museum experience. Since when we left the house, we were planning on going to the much smaller, cheaper Rodin Museum, I didn't bring the stroller. We decided en route, as we passed its classical perch on the bluff, to hit up the Big Art Museum. In the end, I'm glad all I had was the leash, because Ellis wandered, freely taking it all in. He loved it. He looked and looked, pointing at so many things. The atmosphere was festive, freshly festooned with Christmas regalia, serenaded in the middle to a live jazz band.
Chris had something to do in Center City today, so we met him afterwards for lunch in Rittenhouse Square. Due to a few strategically thrown crackers, Ellis had no trouble attracting pigeons to his vicinity. He loved them! I tried to repress my feelings of revulsion. As anyone who's traveled with me knows, I hate pigeons.
Today when I was feeding Ellis his dinner, the spoon kept catching the light streaming in through the window. When I realized it, I made the light dance on the ceiling. To say that it amused Ellis would be an understatement.
UPDATE: I'm having trouble making this work. It will be awesome when it does, so check back. It should work now.
EDITED TO ADD: Nick asked in a recent comment my thoughts on Google Video versus YouTube. Having no prior experience with latter and only a tiny bit with the former, I thought I'd try both, and compare. So far, I feel like Google streams better. *shrug* thoughts?:
