HEARING

This morning Max had his weekly therapy appointment with his speech pathologist and later today we meet with his/our sign language teacher. I have really been working with him on a few key signs but little progress has been made thus far unfortunately. It is a bit frustrating. His cousin Thomas learned "more" and "milk" within days, but Max and I have been working on it for weeks and weeks. I know, I know...every kid is different but I just wonder if/when Max will ever really get the hang of sign language. I am not discouraged, but more confused on how this will all come together. As my therapists often remind me, language (oral and sign) involves many complex skills and Max is just not to that level quite yet. But we'll keep trying, that's for sure. Practice, practice...and more practice! Actually his therapist today was very encouraged with how quickly he responds to me with a happy dance. I dance and then he dances...good "imitation" (another developmental milestone). She thought it was a great sign of communication response...so YAY MAX! And YAY for fun happy dances!

She brought several books for me to read about children and deafness...looking forward to learning more about this issue. I want to help him as much as possible.

On Monday, we have a hearing test scheduled at Children's. He has had several BAER tests during his stay in the hospital. Those are performed while he is sleeping/sedated and measures the brain's response to sound. This test will actually test Max's behavior response to sound. Should be interesting! The past few days his response hasn't been great and he has been itching at his ear a lot, so I am concerned he possibly has another ear infection (common in CHARGErs because of the abnormalities). I scheduled an appointment with his PCP for tomorrow, because if he does have an infection we will need to cancel his tests.