Not to sound like such a martyer, but summer school is a sacrifice for all of us. We wake up early, we spend a lot of time in the car commuting. We go to the bed when it is still SO STINKIN’ BRIGHT outside. The tuition we raised was costly, gas is costly, and wah wah wah you get the idea. However, everyone is working together and thank God we are seeing results!

SJ’s hearing age is now 7 months and she knows almost 20 words. Some of them she can pronounce better than others, but she understands quite a bit and is rapidly broadening her vocabulary. Her teacher always has encouraging and funny stories to share about what SJ is up to in class. One of my favorite stories was during vocabulary practice she is given a set of items and she has to grab the word that she hears. Here is an example

One day the objects were shoes, tree, and juice. The teacher said “JUICE” and she put one hand on the shoes and one hand on the juice and just shrugged her shoulders implying she knew it was one or the other. Those words sound a lot a like and she’s a clever cookie for trying to choose multiple answers. Here is another therapy video of her with the same teacher.

It’s exciting to watch her make such great strides. I remember the first few months after she got her implants I was always calling her name as a practice to see if she would respond and when she did I would sign and say “good listening”. Now I call her name in the same way I would with any child, just expecting that she can hear me and sometimes she is far away, or outside, or in another room and she can hear me! That doesn’t mean that I can always get her attention or that she is always wearing her implants, but she is doing well and I am so grateful.