sutton093

August 13th marked a very special anniversary for Maggie.  It has been one year since she received her BAHA hearing aid and started hearing clearly.  What a difference one year makes ! Last year, Maggie wasn't speaking much, just a little baby babble every now and then.   But now !!!  There's no way I could list all the words Maggie says ( or attempts to say) because she is trying to say everything. Just tonight she reached for the towel and said "towel", then started saying "wow". She doesn't link many words together yet, except for " I want" and "I have one or two" ( she's counting everything now). And for you speech people, Maggie still has a glottal stop and has trouble saying some letters:  ( D,T,SH,CH).  She does some weird thing where she tries to say the word, but won't open her mouth.  She also will not say DADDY. So, for now she is calling daddy "BaBa", which is the Chinese name for daddy and she is happ...

It seems Maggie's speech has just exploded recently.  She is repeating so many words now - some words only Chuck and I can recognize - and many words that are very clear.   Here's a list of some words that I can think of that she is really saying good: purple blue  yellow ball no !!! bye bye Hi !!!! ( she loves to wave and say hi to anyone ) Hello ! ( Maggie  loves to talk on the "phone" and say hello ) water cold hot arm elbow uh oh ! dog - woof cat - meow monkey -oooo oh ! ma ma pa pa apple butterfly  bird hole hat out I love you ! Will Walker Where's  ? Home Bye Bye.

We take Maggie's hearing aid off for her bath ( it can not get wet) and then usually leave it off  while she plays a little before bedtime.  This gives her head a rest from the elastic band she has to wear everyday and from the constant amplified noise she hears through her hearing aid.  But, this means that she can not hear one of her favorite things - music .  The girl loves music !! She even has started asking for her hearing aid so she can listen to music while she is in her crib ( she does not wear her hearing aid for naps or bedtime).   One day, she stumbled upon a way to listen to her music without wearing her hearing aid - the baby monitor.  The receiver is in her room and was picking up her cd player playing her favorite signing times cd.  She could hear it faintly through the baby monitor, but when she held it up to her ear she could really hear it clearly . She played and played while she listened to her music.  Magg...

Doesn't she look so big in the pictures ? Now for the update : 1. S ign Languag e:  It is somewhat controversial to teach a hearing impaired child sign language when that child  has the ability to hear through hearing aids.  One of the thoughts behind this is that a hearing impaired child will tend to hold on to signing and will not want to use their voice.  A non hearing impaired child will drop the sign language easily and talk.(  I am sure there is a ton of research and info out on this topic and I am just skirting the issue.)  So we had a decision to make a while back - to teach Maggie sign language or not.  Her Auditory/verbal teacher felt Maggie had just as much ability to speak as she did to sign.  But, she left the decision up to us and also Maggie is not your typical child.  She has other issues: orphanage,severe lack of stimulation as a baby and developmental delays due to orphanage....