For the teachers out there... :-)

http://www.medicine.iu.edu/documents/Otolaryngology/Medel.pdf

Confidence

Time for an update on Lotte.
It's great to see how her development is going fast. In spurs. Perhaps having guests in the house in December (Lotte's grandma) and January (friends from Holland) really show the changes.
After all, they have not seen Lotte for a while and will notice differences easier.

The differences in the last couple of months have been in the way she pronounces words ( the "R" and "L" have really improved) and the length of the sentences.
These changes we notice ourself as well, but not as profound as the guests that are visting us.

But yesterday another important milestone appeared.
A couple of days ago, when I picked Lotte up from the kindergarten, she "complained" about a boy that had hit her and poured water over her. She wasn't crying. Just upset about what the boy had done. And explaining that he shouldn't have done this. All this in Norwegian, since we use that language when in the Norwegian setting.
In the evening, she explained the same again to her mother. This time in Dutch - the "home- language"...
Then yesterday, in the kindergarten, something had happened and a "meeting" was called.
All the children around the table, and the adults explained to the children what happened, and discussed it with the children.
When Lotte got the word, she stood up, and explained to all children about other children "mistreating" her in the last couple of days and why this should not be done.
All children listened to her, and when she was finished, agreed with her!

How about that! She feels so comfortable over there that she did this.
It shows how secure she feels. And this is a result of the kindergarten as a whole, the teachers that work there and of course Lotte herself.
And she will need it..... going to school, she will "lose" that secure feeling in the new environment. There are some idea's to have one of the teachers accompanying her, and of course, we will be able to assist her at school.
But the secure feeling she has at the moment at the kindergarten.... it's just fantastic..

A big THANK YOU to all the teachers over there....

Swimming...

Last monday it was a big day for Lotte.
She would have her first swimming-lesson... and for us the opportunity to see how communication would be between Lotte and us and Lotte and the instructors.
We would be using sign-language when needed, but the instructors don't know sign.... Would Lotte focus on them to read their lips.??

She was exited. Swimming is very popular, and she loves to jump in the water from the starting blocks and dip under the surface.... the flotation devices on her arms keeping her head above water.....
But.. that's with daddy and her brother and sister around.....
She noticed we would not join her in the water.... Now the situation was completely new, and Lotte backed out slowly.


Then, one of the instructors actually did know a little sign, and when Lotte noticed, she allowed him to take her in the water. But not much more.... She kept climbing out and coming back to us.

It was funny when we wanted to put the coil on her head to explain to her what was going to happen. Lotte refused to have the CI on. She probably got it in her head that CI and swimming do not go together. Perhaps because she notices that no other children are using it..... She is becoming more and more aware of how she looks. (e.g. She doesn't like her hair a certain way because then" children will laugh")

Anyway....
As with other unknown situations, Lotte withdrew from the action. The same happens at birthday parties. Unknown situation, lots of action, and then she insists that one of us is close to her..)
She did not participate much in the educational part of the swimming session, but did participate the last 5 minutes of playing.... again.. only with the man that new some sign....

For us, it shows that no matter how much Lotte is prepared for a new situation, no matter how much she wants to do it, when the moment comes she needs time to adjust and get familiar with the situation.
With her new speech-therapist (when she started in the "hearing"-kindergarten in august 2006) it took 3 months... but that was 2 years ago....
Who knows how long it will take when she goes to school.
Because no matter how much she looks forward to that..... the insecurity that comes with being in an unknown situation will override that feeling!!!

Want to play?

This morning when Lotte arrived at the kindergarten, a little girl her age stood and waited for her.
"God morning Lotte! Shall I be with you?"

"Shall we eat breakfast together?".

When other kids take an active initiativ to contact Lotte, that is a sign of real inclusion.
They find she has something to contribute, and they wish to spend time with her.

Hurray for the staff of the kindergarten, because they are the ones that make this possible.
To make inclusion happen is the responsibility of the grown-ups.

Mous

Back to the past...

Yesterday, Sunday, Lotte suddenly remembered one of the teachers (U.) of her previous kindergarten. This is one of the deaf teachers there, who can speak very well. Lotte asked if she could go to the kindergarten and meet her.. (The picture on the right is from the last days there.... march 2006)
So today, we called the kindergarten and asked if Lotte could visit. She was very welcome!

Arriving at the school, she remembered where she had played and walked. After all, it is only 1-1/2 years ago, but for Lotte, that is quite a lifetime.
We went inside, and she recognised the school. There are only a few teachers there from the time she has been there, so she was very shy.
But, when U. appeared, she lightened up.
But, even though U. speaks well, she uses sign all the time. It was obvious that Lotte did not follow it. She listened to the speech.
This was even more obvious when another teacher arrived on the scene. This teacher, M. is also deaf, but her speech is very distorted. Difficult to understand for us, but for Lotte is was very strange. She kept her distance from this teacher.

But it was good to see them again. Lotte had obviously grown a lot, and everyone was glad to see her. They still had a book that Lotte "forgot" when she left there, so U. and Lotte went to get it. It didn't leave Lotte's side from then on...

Going out, it was funny to see that Lotte was looking for her coat in the "usual" place from when she went to that school. Straight back into the old habits....

For us, we could see how good our decision has been to have Lotte in an all-hearing kindergarten. The contrast between the two schools are quite big. Obviously, it is difficult to predict where Lotte would have been had she still been going to the deaf/hoh/ci/hearing kindergarten.... but there is a strong feeling that the move was for the best.

A heart for Lotte...

Every week one of the children in the kindergarden gets a heart from all of the other children.
They think of all the thing the child is good at.

A wonderful way of putting a child in the spotlight and highlighting the good stuff.
Today it was Lotte who got the honours... She got a beautiful heart with on it:

She was so proud of it, as all children are. It's a great honour and the message is passed along quickly. (One of the children allready informed Lottes mother before she had even seen Lotte...)
Anyway, the heart is carried close to the heart, and reads:

Lotte is good at going on walks,

Lotte is really cool,

Lotte is sweet,

Lotte is good at "perle" and drawing,

Lotte is good at gymnastics,

Lotte is good at climbing and sliding,

Lotte gives good hugs,

Lotte is good at playing with others.

(The picture looks like a mug-shot.... :-) This is straight after she got home from the kindergarden..Guess the combination of sand, sun and playing in it for 8 hours has it's effect....)

She's so at the right place over there... it's just great.

Next year - well, August, she'll move up to another class with children that also will be going to school the following year....

With the support she will get there and the creativity they have, she'll do great.!

CI story by Frances Parsons - August 2002

(Frances M. Parsons is retired Associate Professor of History of Art and Coordinator of International Collections at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC)
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To: Sarah Wainscott, Director of Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

I came. I saw. I was conquered by the living evidence of how cochlear implant technology helps those toddlers at the River School. Words cannot describe how I felt when I finally visited the River School. I want to share this letter with anybody who wants to know about how cochlear implants benefit toddlers but are unable to get more information. The controversy about cochlear implants, especially in children, rages on with no let up. I have listened to pros and cons and met failures and successes. The most negative comment was "Those CI children at residential or day schools for the deaf could not speak!"

While sitting in waiting rooms .....Continue reading here..

Playing - Alone!!

Another milestone.
Until 3 weeks ago, Lotte would not be secure enough to play alone with someone she doesn't know well. For example, babysitters were relatively safe when we had put Lotte to bed. Otherwise, the "going-to-bed" routine could be a disaster.

3 Weeks ago, she joined her sister in playing at a neighbour, 4 houses up the road (not down..) and Lotte had a great time. The children over there are known from the kindergarten, but is was still a first that she was out half a day and enjoyed herself.

Today she went a step further. She loves riding the bike outside. She was OK for her mum to leave her alone outside, and played with the daughter of the neighbour down the road.
After a while, the neighbour called and said that the girl wanted to play inside... if that was OK.
OF COURSE !!!
First time that Lotte was secure enough to do this. She can make herself understand, and feels confident enough to handle the situation...

When finished she made it very clear that tomorrow she would play with her little friend again...
(Jeezzz it's not easy not to use names.... )

WOW, our little girl is growing.... and it goes so fast !!

New kindergarten / Preschool

As mentionned before, Lotte "grew" a lot during the holidays. A lot can be contributed to being in an all-dutch environment with little to no signs.

2 Weeks ago she went to an all-hearing kindergarten for 3 days in the week. This went very well. No problems adjusting. She's enjoying it tremendously.

It was funny that on the second day, one of the teachers said that Lotte used sign which - off course - they don't understand. There was no frustration from Lottes side that se was not understood.
I asked them what she signed, and it was "home". Then I turned to Lotte, and asked her... what is "this" - making the sign for home, and she immediately replied - for the teacher to hear - "home"... This showed that she was just tired and didn't want to speak. And it showed in a nutshell that she's at the right place. In the other kindergarten people would have understood her. Here, Lotte will have to speak in order to be understood.

In two weeks we can see the improvement in her speech. It's difficult to determine if it's due to more hearing-environment, but the progress is there.
(AllDeaf)

2005-02-23 - Regarding learning

2005-02 - (February) Education
(From AllDeaf)
I'm Mous and I'm new on this forum. I have three kids, the eldest two are hearing, and I've got a wonderful daughter of 2 1/2 yrs old, that was born deaf. She got a bilateral cochlea-implant last october, and the sound was turned on in November. Our daughter just loves her CI. In the beginning, whenever she would hear a new sound, she would sign "listen!", and all of her face would radiate with pure joy, her whole being would lighten up with excitement.

I'm not writing to you because I want to start a discussion about whether or not to choose CI for children. Here in Norway where I live, that is not so much a discussion anymore. The Deaf community here is in general quite positive towards it, they don't think it will threaten their culture so much, but are aware that it will definitly change it.

However, the discussion going on in this country is about in which way these children should be educated. There is a big contradiction between to groups: one says the kids should only be taught speech (oral), versus an even bigger group that goes for a bilingual speech-development, i.e. Norwegian and Norwegian sign-language. (And there of course is the mixture of spoken language with sign as support, but I don't wish to categorize this as sign-language).
We have chosen for our daughter to be able to learn both languages, so that she later on in life can choose in which arena (hearing or Deaf) she wants to be.
I'm doing an education in sign-language at the university.In addition to that i follow a course that all parents of children with severe hearing-loss get, which is in all 40 weeks of sign-language tuition, over the course of 16 years (or until the child becomes 16). (Paid leave from work.)For the university education I'm writing a paper now, which is about belonging to different cultures (Deaf/hearing), whether this is possible, and what are important factors for a bilingual education to being successful. Lets face it, we do not want the child being half-competent in either of the two languages. Our goal is that the child becomes fluent in both. (In addition to that, we speak a third language at home, dutch).

My question is, are there any people who either have had an implant as a child and have grown up bilingual, or parents who chose an implant for their child and chose the bilingual education for their child in stead of only oral, and what are your experiences? I would love it if you would want to share that with me.
Mous