Washing Machines and Cars

Yesterday, One of the most important dates in the calendar for the Shaw family, namely the birthday of Big Sister Katy, we were getting ready to go to Daddy's house. I was putting washing in the machine and Mary was helping. Then I notice she is making the "pshhhttttt" sound exactly as the water sounds when it first enters the machine. Her copying sounds is really coming on.

Once the washing had been sorted I then proceeded to get the girls and all their things ready. Mary kept insisting we were going by bike. I have purchased her a tagalong for my bike which she thinks is absolutely fabulous. So we have to cycle everywhere. Alas though Daddy's house is about 2 miles away and I have not yet plucked up the courage to do more than the school run and to the local shop. Not to mention Katy would have a epileptic fit if i suggested cycling so far and where would we put all the stuff! So as I was putting Mary's shoes on, she is avidly signing "bicycle" I say to her "No we are going in the car. The car." Pleasee note My hands were busy and so I was talking. I was also talking down not looking at her face. She immediately signs "car". So she heard and understood and showed she understood. Well done Mary. Then when we get in the car particularly if she is in the front she makes all the actions as if switching on and driving the car and the "rmmmmmm" noise of the engine.

Another step forward is that now we say "Shoooos offfff" whenever we come in the house and I ask all the kids to take their shoes and coats off. Mary thinks it is sufficient to say this and stick her foot up at me. But we are making progress. She does take her "shooooos offf" when the mood takes her.

Words/Sounds

Pssssshhhhhhtttt - water noise going into washing machine
Rmmmmmmmm - car
Shhhoooos offff - Shoes off

Mary Said Owwwwww

On Thursday 7th January 2010 we were at another friends house and Mary was messing about climbing all over me and throwing herself off the sofa. Both my friend and I tried to warn her about the nearby coffee table but woudl she look, nope. Anyway as predicted she fell off the sofa and stood up shaking her hand signing "oww" while saying "owww" perfectly at the same time. My friend and I jsut looked at each other and confirmed that we were hearing right. We cheered and praised her then thoguht we better check if she was ok but she seemed fine. Spontaneous vocalisation in context. Yay.

Extending Mary's Sign vocabulary

In addition to helping Mary focus on speech sounds we are also trying to extend her sign vocabulary. Mary has all her needs well and truly met so does not feel the need to sign more. She uses a lot of gesture and showing people what she wants or just does it herself. She got herself in trouble with Grandpa for shoving a DVD into the video player at Christmas, oops. Still it all turned out alright in the end!

So before Christmas she asked for her Tom and Jerry DVD, she signs "cat". I spent a few minutes with her getting her to sign " cat DVD please". She did this after a fashion.

Today she came to me and asked for "cat mouse". I was so pleased. I have referred to Tom and Jerry as "cat mouse" but she never took that up. Or so I thought. She is such a minx. Wonder what this next year is going to bring!

New Sign
"cat mouse" Tom and Jerry

She knows her place! And Mummy's and Daddy's!

Apologies for being so slack. Things have been a little hectic here. Mary's Dad and I separated at the beginning of December. Was rather complicated for a while so these things got left to their own devices.

I was really concerned as to how Mary woudl take it all Daddy living in a separate house. We could explain things to our 5 year old and she had a few questions. But how do we explain such a complex issue to Mary when we still at the basic level of communication.

But never fear Mary is so clever. I dropped her at Daddy's after about two weeks of separation. She had stayed at his on the Wednesday night but he had picked her up from here. Anyway the Saturday morning when I put her inside Daddy's house she took her coat and shoes off and then turned to me... She pointed at me with a determined look on her face and signed "go". I asked her for a kiss and she repeated her signs and turned away and went inside. Of course I was haertbroken, at not getting my kiss. But that told me! The next week when Daddy dropped them off here. She asked to go up into my arms and then turned to Daddy and waved.

Ho she has worked out that Daddy and Mummy live in different houses amazes me. SHe is so intuitive. She is brilliant.

New signs
"Go"
DVD
Cat DVD please
Come
No - and she takes great delight in telling other children "no"
Eat
Downstairs

Horses....

On Monday we had the pleasure of the company of Mary's Hiccups friends at Easton Farm Park. We had a lovely day and the weather held out much better than Sunday at Thetford.

We saw rabbits, guinea pigs, big Suffolk Punch Horse called Mary who is also 2 years old and needs to learn her manners. Mary had many rides on the horse and trap and also on a pony. She was quite happy to go without Mummy or Daddy or Big sister. She wanted to swim in the fountain. It is very nice to see that she enjoys being with other people and does not worry about new places or strangers. Will cause me heartache when I have to start the "Stranger Danger" conversations but for now lovely to watch her confidence. Lots of signing of the animals and a generally very fun day.

Mary Suffolk Punch

Guinea Pig Bash.. Sorry patting

Horse and trap ride. Mary had in excess of 6 turns round the farm.

Mary on her first pony ride. She was very good at waiting her turn. There were two girls in front of her in the queue and although they were physically behind her while we were waiting she easily understood the "Their turn" sign, flick your thumbs up to the person whose turn it is. What a clever girl. She signed horse very enthusiastically.

Non Verbal/sign Communication

Today we were at Gavin's house (you can follow Gavin here http://www.songavger.blogspot.com/). I was watching him and Mary playing in his garden. Gavin does sign and is very good with Mary. This was the first time at his house and she went straight in and looked like she owned the place. They have a large Trampoline in the garden and Mary knew exactly how to get Gavin to put her on and bounce her around. She had no problems communicating her needs. She used some signs and Gavin did encourage her to sign when he could get her attention. But Mary is very clever at communicating her needs in her own way. Afterall what is communication. In one sense it is the art of getting another person to do our bidding. She certainly excels at that.

I dont know if this hinders or helps Mary's formal language development this ability to get what she wants. However as it is communication it is lovely to see.

Thank goodness with all that bouncing we did not have trouble getting her to bed tonight.

Toast

Breakfast at Grandma's on Sunday was replayed to me by Daddy upon his return Sunday evening.

Mary was sat after her cereal at the table patiently or otherwise waiting to go and play. She kept raising both hands up in the air, fingers up, palms towards the chest. "Toast"
Grandma asks what it is she is doing. Daddy informs her it is the sign for Toast.
Grandma says OK if she wants toast I shall go and makes some. She toddles off to the kitchen as dutiful Grandma's are want to do. Mary continues signing toast.

A few minutes later Grandma returns with desired item. And signs toast.

Mary looks at it agrees with Grandma, signs "Toast" and then leaves the table with a nod.

This is so Mary. Just checking if you would obey my command. And of course Grandma would.

Shoes off Mummy

Today we went to a friends house. Her daughter too has bilateral cochlear implants. But the daughter is nearly six years old so does not really play with Mary at the moment. However it is nice to meet up with another mum who understands Mary and her needs. She signs to Mary and replaces her ears without any thought and I can truly relax.

Mary too enjoys our visits there and let out a big squeal and waved her arms when we pulled up in the driveway.

The girls were playing in the garden and us grown ups were in the kitchen. This scene reminds me of the issue I have with translation of BSL into English for the subtitles. I am beginning to understand BSL and find the subtitle translations very amusing. On a TV show we watch, Wicked, one of the presenters merely shrugged. The translation was "Well I suppose so then" accurate but wordy.

Mary's Language
M: Mary comes into the room sits on the floor and thrusts her foot in my direction.
Translation "Mummy please will you take my shoe off?"
Mummy: I sign "Want shoe off"(dominant hand inserted into non-dominant hand and pulled out as though taking a shoe off)
M: Mary looks at me, rolls her eyes and thrusts her foot at me again.
Translation "You know I want you to take my shoe off. You also know I know how to sign shoe off so will you just take my shoes off so I can get on with playing, thank you very much."

Needless to say I did not get her to sign "shoe off" on that occasion. She had her shoes and socks removed and promptly left to go back outside.

This highlights the biggest difficulty I have with my daughter. Her independent, know it all spirit. In one respect it is a blessing with all the added hardships she will have in life. However it makes for a frustrating time trying to get her to respond to us and show us what she does know. Why waste time signing what you know when you can be outside playing?

HICCUPS - toddler group

We attend a special toddler group on alternate Mondays for Hearing and Visually Impaired children. It is called Hiccups which stands for Hearing Impaired Children Coming up to Primary School. It started out with the HI children and we have since melded with the VI children. It is very interesting to find out the different challenges those children and their families have.

Back to Mary, our Deaf adult friend Gavin was there and Mary spent a lot of time watching his signing. She also wore her ears very well even in the noisy environment. It was so great to see her mixing with the other children. Brilliant day. Then after Hiccups we went to our new friends house. Mum is lovely, her daughter is only 5 months and HI and VI. Be wonderful to watch how she develops. Mary found that her big sister had a rocking horse and merrily signed horse. Then after being on the horse for a while signed up and off. She was tired but is starting to sign such a lot. What a clever girl.

After a bad weekend with the ears Mary wore her ears very well today and I noticed her making a range of different sounds. I tried getting it on video but as soon as she saw the camera she stopped.

But the best news today is that she can say Mummy properly. No Mummummumm. She has said it twice today so I know it was not a fluke the other day. Now does she actually need to say anymore???!

New Word
Mummy

Mary signing driving and making the car sound. We have not specifically taught her to make the sound for a car. She picked that up herself. What a clever girl.

Yes upstairs!

Mary had enough eating and wants to go upstairs.

Mary aged 2 3/4. Does some signing with her Language Aide.

Where to start...

My Darling Mary has been profoundly deaf since birth, we think. I first realised there was a problem when she was 7-8 months old, she had always been a listless sickly baby. I asked the health visitor to check out her hearing and she claimed that she couldnt be deaf because "She is a happy baby." I should have pushed harder because things may have happened quicker. Through other means we got referred to the audiology unit at hospital. She was eventually seen by paediatric consultant two days after my mum's funeral. She was tested electronically via an ABR a week later and by 17 July we had a confirmed diagnosis that she was profoundly deaf. She was fitted with her first hearing aids on the 1st August. She was 13.5 months old.
We perservered with the hearing aids for 4-5 months but there was no improvement in her vocalisations.
In December we were referred to the Emmeline Cochlear Implant centre. Numerous tests later she was admitted to the program. We were lucky as we were able to secure a place in a trial to determine if two implants were better than 1. The NHS at the time were only funding one implant. I always felt that we were meant to have two ears so it seemed bizarre to only offer one implant. Mary had her operation on 23 June when she was a week over 2. She was switched on five weeks later after a few complications with infection.
It has been slow progress but since January, Mary being 2.5yrs, she seems to have come on in leaps and bounds with her hearing and vocalising. I wanted to make a record of her journey to hearing and speaking. Please bear in mind she is still a profoundly deaf little girl and although she can hear me shout "no" and her name when she is wearing her processors, it is still very difficult for her to make out sound.
The cochlear implant is a very sophisticated, almost magical piece of equipment but it is not a cure for deafness. I call them her "Magic Ears". We are learning sign as well because I feel it is important for her to learn the language of her peers.
With this blog I am hoping to record all those little milestones she does. Hope you enjoy it.