Landon Update: I had the opportunity to attend a therapy session for Landon a couple of weeks ago. After getting in trouble with his therapist for teaching him the wrong sound for something, OOPS, I was very impressed with his progress. We determined that he is at a normal developmental level on a few items. Landon and I are going to start working on front, back and top very soon, I will give you an update asap.
Research Update: A new study by Bichey and Miyamoto (2008), found an improvement in quality of life and a favorable cost-utility associated with bilateral cochlear implantation in patients with profound hearing loss. These patients showed additional improvements in quality of life after they received their second implant. Information on the study, including article, can be found here: http://www.usemyears.com/?q=node/240
Site Update: I have been noticing over the past couple of weeks the site has not been performing up to my standards from speed standpoint. After reviewing, I have decided to move the site to a new server that has more speed and power. I think the performance increase has been worth the work. Now that this has been fixed, I am moving to build the data collection mechanisms for the site.
Landon Update: Landon is progressing nicely in his language development. The latest is his annoucement of "There <something> is!" when he finds it. It is great to arrive home from work everyday to "There he is!" and a big hug. Before long we will have to ask him to stop talking!
The arrival of Bella has been greated by Landon very well. He is very gentle and happy with his little sister. He has taken to giving her kisses on the head and wanting to hold her on the rare occasion.
Site Update: Currently, I am working on a parental concent form for the "I agree" section of the website. Once that is completed and operating, I will be placing the student assessment components on the website. From that point, people will be able to track the progress of their children during their first few years of hearing.
Landon Update: Over the past few weeks I have been approached by a number of people concerning Landon's cochlear implants. The most common question is, "Can he hear?" I am happy to say that he can hear and communicate verbally. I think in many ways he hears better than I do and I have had natural hearing for 37 years. Over the past couple of weeks, I have attepted to get him to repeat multiple word combinations to build some simple sentences. Most of the success has been spontanious and great. I think his favorite saying right now is "Press Play", "Press Play" on the DVD player so he can watch his Mickey Mouse videos.
Site Update: I am happy to report that we have launch the third phase of the website with a new redesign and simplified functions. Over the next couple of weeks I wll be adding in assessment pieces used by many educators to evaulate language aquisition in young children. Additionally, I am rebuilding the Sound Garden to make it more user friendly and I have added scholarly references content type to the site. There is not a good site search to allow users to find information easier. Goals for the next phase of this project will be to build in an Activation garden and a place for people to post their stories and experiences with an auditory approach to deaf education.
Well, I am happy to say the semester has been completed with the entry of my final grades. This semester has been very adventious for me and my students between the hurricanes and snow storm. Dispite all the destractions I managed to stay on target to launch The Sound Garden. I have started using the Ling 6 sound test with Landon and he has been responding well to the website. The results have been encouraging and makes me want to continue building the website. I will be working with my sons to add more sounds and images to the sound garden over the coming weeks. Check it out: http://www.usemyears.com/?q=audio/by/artist/usemyears
Well, I have been working on this site for the past year to help my son Landon and other children taking AV Therapy. I am now in the process of creating all the courses based on the Auditory Learning Guide I received from Landon's therapist. Well, I have been working on this site for the past year to help my son Landon and other children taking AV Therapy. I am now in the process of creating all the courses based on the Auditory Learning Guide I received from Landon's therapist.
I believe this site will fairly useful and unique. I have built the site to focuses on using social networking techniques and wish for it to be a gathering space for people interesting in auditory verbal therapy. Some of the site features are as follows:
User defined communities
User built sound garden
Friend invitation and management
Wikis, blogs and forums
Courses and activities for auditory verbal therapy
The site is in what we call BETA, which means it is going through transformation. The most important thing to note is that the site will have AV course and activities with defined learning outcomes for the student. Now that I am passed a significant development phase, I will begin to add regular updates via my blog and be creating all the AV courses over the next few months.Â
Landon update. - It's been a while since I've updated on words Landon is saying so I thought I'd take a quick second and post a list of a couple I can remember. One of his favorite words - which he says very clearly - is cookie (surprise); yeah; no; yes mam/sir (when you remind him of manners)' thank you; drink; bread; open; sock; shoe; eye; nose; there you go; pancake; apple; shake; all gone; diaper; cooking. He can also count to 6 - this one was a surprise to me. We were playing with some blocks before his therapist came and while I was stacking them he just started counting them. And then he actually did it for her - he doesn't always like to perform on command. I need to set up a running list somewhere on here where I can just add the new ones as he does them. I know there is a lot more he says, just can't think of them right now. [Buzz's Journey]
4th of July - Hope every one had a good 4th of July. It's become a tradition to spend the day at Eric's sisters house. She lives right next to the levee so we can see all the festivities across the river in downtown Baton Rouge without actually having to go fight the crowds. We usually go swimming but the weather didn't cooperate this year. They do a mock battle reenactment with the USS Kidd and luckily the rain decided to stop then so we headed outside to watch. When the first bomber plane flew over head, Connor took off running for the house with his fingers in his ears yelling "They're gonna bomb us!!!" Every time one would pass over Landon would point at it and make the "AAAHHH" sound we do for the airplane. The boys had a blast - spending most of the day playing a new Wii game Nanny had bought. They liked the fireworks show - except for Connor who watched with his fingers in his ears. Landon didn't blink the whole time and then at the end clapped. Last year he didn't hear them - even with his hearing aids. What a difference a year makes.
Landon tries to say most of what you tell him now. He'll say something and if we say the right thing back he gets this big smile on his face and either laughs or gives us a kiss. I keep his listening toys in separate plastic containers - all the fish in one, all the snakes, etc.. He now will pick up one of the containers, look at what is in it, and says the sound for the what is in it. He does the snake, fish, hop (for the bunnies that jump), round and round and round for the tops, cut (for the velcro food and knife), and ducks. The others aren't in see-through containers so I'm going to have to go to the store and get some more clear ones and see if he'll start doing it for more. His favorite thing right now is the Little People house. He loves to put the mom and dad in the chairs, shakes his finger and says "sit down". It's worked out good for us because when he stands up in the tub now we just shake our finger and he sits down. [Buzz's Journey]
Everyone's mother has told them, playing that iPod to loud will make you deaf, but what if you turned the volume to its highest level and heard nothing? For 1 in every 1,000 children born in the United States, silence is all that is heard. Now, with a cochlear implant and the iPod touch, many are enjoying a new world of sound. Using the new innovative features of the iPod touch SDK and its ability to plug directly into all major brands of cochlear implants, educators can develop new interactive environments for teaching language acquisition to the deaf.
If you consider that 93 percent of deaf children are born into hearing families, it is easy to understand that the educational performance of those students remain poor. The vast majority of hearing parents instinctively try to teach their children language via the spoken word. This fact is backed up by Gallaudet Research Institute, where they found that 72% of families do not use sign language with their children. (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2002) The break-down of the parent as the primary education could be the reason, according to some research, the average reading comprehension of an 18-year-old deaf student was reported just below the 4th grade level. (Traxler 2000)
With significant advancements in technology, a new world of sound has become available to some members of the deaf community presenting new language acquisition opportunities. Cochlear implants are transforming how language is taught for some deaf children. With proper Auditory Verbal training, an implanted deaf child uses this technology to hear spoken language and environmental sounds.
A cochlear implant is not a cure for deafness. It is nothing more than a tool that allows deaf children to acquire access to sound and results vary based on many different factors. Learning to use the technology requires a significant amount of work on the part of parents, therapist, educators and the students.
Once a child is implanted, one approach to educational development is an auditory verbal approach. The foundation of this approach is that with the use of hearing aids or cochlear implants, hearing impaired children can learn to listen and understand spoken language in order to communicate through the spoken word. The Auditory-Verbal approach is a parent-oriented approach. The therapist teach the parents how to teach speech and language to the child via structured lessons and the parents incorporate language lessons into daily life.
Using this convergence of emerging technology, iPod touch and Cochlear implant, a new world of sound is available to the deaf. This will show you how to plug the iPod touch into bilateral implants for the purpose of delivering auditory verbal therapy.
First go to Radio Shack and purchase a Y adapter Model #274-375. The cost is only $4.99. Second, use the audio cables provided with the implants and plug the left and right implants into the splitter. Finally, plug in splitter into the iPod touch. Now there is stereo sound for the implant user.
To use this setup in auditory verbal therapy let's discover music with our good friend, Mickey Mouse. What child does not like Mickey Mouse? To help develop an understanding of music a number of videos are uploaded to the iPod touch and the student is allowed to watch those videos. For this particular picture the student watches the various Disney characters as they dance to the "Hot Dog" song. Another advantage the iPod touch gives the student is tactual response to touch. Check out the below video:
UseMyEars.com does not guarenttee results. This site is provided AS-IS with no warrenty and is not a substitute for a qualified auditory verbal therapist.
