Hearing "banana"

This is something I most people never have to think about...the hearing "banana" and the frequency of certain letters. The X's mark Lily's hearing ability.

But this does explain why Lily liked the bagpipes at the springtime parade and the sounds of a piano and also why she can't hear f s th - sounds also impossible to lip read because just air coming through your lips...

Since the news - we have been speaking, reading directly into Lily's "good" ear, talking louder, and she has a loaner hearing aid (until the new one comes in) but she has only worn for a few long stretches.
-This is a recent article in the washington washington post by Josh Swiller and really gives insight into hearing loss

-Chris

Hearing aid

So in the past month with numerous not very helpful audiologist appointments we have secured a loaner hearing aid..

Now getting a 2 year old to do anything is hard... especially putting something in your ear... Lily has worn it for a few long stretches and then she says ouch, ear, hear and yanks it out.

But it is definitely hard convincing someone who has functioned quite nicely without hearing very much at all to use this device...

Adventures in Hearing

Blogging how strange - I really don't have a desire to share my life with the world... but I do this now with the mission to help others in our situation and to help our daughter.

what "situation" you ask...

I could start at the beginning but I can get into that later. For reference Lily just turned 2 years old. About 6 months ago, we took her to the doctor... what is wrong her, is she okay...Is there something in her diet that she is allergic to? She was always on the go, she was/is nonstop, doesn't want to sit in one place, she is stubborn, easily frustrated and she doesn't say many words. She won't sit still for books, she won't be entertained by videos or tv, why is she so loud.

She is fine, we were told by our doctor. From family and others we got the "her older sister" is just talking for her, (her sister is 4), we got the stories - "my brother/sister/uncle didnt talk at all until he was 3" or "lots of kids dont talk", she is a late bloomer, your other daughter was just unusual...

Still concerned we took her in for an evaluation at the First Words Project in Tallahassee, Florida, part of Florida State University's Department of Communication Disorders. They did a communication and symbolic behavior scales development profile.

From report - "Lily was presented with situations that tempted her to communicate. She was active, interactive, and adorable throughout the evaulation.... She frequently displayed shifts in eye gaze between people and objects, and shared emotion by smiling." "Lily used gestures and vocalizations to communicate... and she displayed a high rate of spontaneous communication.

- later on in report - "when asked Lily did not identify familiar people, objects, or body parts. She was ready to be done."
Here was her scoring
social communication 75th percentile
speech 25th percentile
Understanding and play <10 percentile.

We were told to look into audiological testing...

Here is the somewhat shocking test result from 6-15-06



no hearing in the right ear (profound) and 60 decibels in the left(moderate to severe)...