Bubbles.. The sequel..

And of course Lotte wants it om the blog....

Recipe from the far east..

Take a "hei, jeg heter Lotte. jeg er 10 år" or "hi. name is Lotte and I am 10 years old"

Put it in the "google translate" pot

Stir, select the Chinese spoon and taste....

大家好，我的名字是樂天我10年

Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ de míngzì shì lètiān wǒ 10 nián

And the you can try yourself..

Then you take the Japanese spoon and taste..

こんにちは、私の名前はロッテです。私は10歳です
Kon'nichiwa, watashinonamaeha Rottedesu.Watashi wa 10-saidesu

And even listen to it... long live the iPad....

Another checkup whooooshed by

Last Tuesday we went to Oslo. On the following day, Wednesday, we had another checkup at the Oslo Medical Centre.. (Refusing to call it a hospital.. that's another wing of the building..)

Plane and Tram to the hotel for a good night rest.

The hotel is next to the hospital, so that's very convenient.

Her teacher was with us. Lotte got 3 new teachers this year, and we found that it's good for them to see the process at least 1 time. It's one way to talk about deafness, about CI, about how much Lotte hears.. it's another thing to be there and see it..
The hospital is huge... and very modern...

The day starts with the technical stuff. The CI processor was checked and adjusted.
Here, program 3 and 4 were removed. That means that when going through the programs, we now go 1-2-1-2-1-2 instead of 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4... In itself a minor thing, since we only use P1 for Lotte. BUT with the "teleslynge" (Hearing Loop) in the classroom and school, we have programmed P2 to be weaker and have the "teleslynge only" on there. P1 will have the "teleslynge" with the microphone activated.
So... to summerise:
P1 = Normal program and Teleslynge with microphone activated (MT).
P2 = Reduced (for loud environments) and Teleslynge without microphone (T).
This was perfectly demonstrated when we tried P2 and the "T"... Lotte didn't hear anything any more.. since there was no teleslynge in that area.. and the microphone was "off".... LOL.. It works..

While all the technical programming was done the audiologist was talking to Lotte about how she was hearing. If everything was OK etc.
It was the first time she was interviewed in this way.. after all.. she's older now.
Still, a lot of questions were difficult for her to answer, and Lotte replied many times "affirmative" to questions she didn't understand... Experienced as she is, the audiologist understands that and will refrase the question, or repeat it...
Still a good conversation...

After that over to the echo-free (anechoic) room.
It's amazing how that room works on a person. The only thing absent in that room is... echo's.. Amazingly.. just walking in that room makes (for me) the hair rise on my skin and gives pressure on my head... All that .. just due to the absence of sound...
Lotte needed to repeat words. First single words which went without problems.
She did 100% until she couldn't understand the word "cat". Tried again... but without luck... Very strange, since there were words that are closer to other words that she understood / repeated without problems. Also .. after the "cat" it was 100% again.... Perhaps she's allergic..

Then, sentences in noise. Previously, it would be words or short sentences, but this time Lotte got "grown-up" sentences at grown-up speed. This because.. well... that's how it is in the real world...
After a slow start she did pretty OK...
One sequence was done with the CI on the shoulders. The following sequence was done with CI on the ears. She did a little better on the last one, indicating that some information might be lost with the CI on the shoulder. Next year, we'll start on the ears, then on the shoulders... if it's still an issue.
All this testing was very good info for Lotte's teacher. Seeing how Lotte struggles with some of the tests gives excellent information to her.

A language comprehension test was done after this. Prepositions etc. Lotte has problems with this.

Information with "not" in there for example. The information in the word "not" is just ignored... resulting in wrong answers.
Also she has problems with distinguishing "on top of" and below... She was very consequent in doing that wrong. Anyway.. lot's of work to to in that area.
Again, for Lotte's teacher, it was very valuable information. Seeing where the problems are will be very beneficial for her when she's teaching Lotte.

This test continued after a lunch break. In the end, Lotte got tired and her answers reflected that. (especially in combination with more difficult questions).

After interpreting the tests we talked about the results.
Lotte is doing very well, and basically the tests show where the attention should be regarding Lotte's development.
Basically... hearing is not a problem. Sure, in noisy environment her ability to hear is reduced.
But, it is much more about catching up the "understanding"-gap left by 2-3 years of deafness... Training the cognitive part of the brain...
Plenty of work to do. For Lotte, for us, the teachers and the rest of the support-group around Lotte..

Hers.... all hers...

November 2010... time flies and our kids grow without us noticing it.
Lotte is growing as wel. Physically and more important, mentally... More and more things become hers.

Homework is hers...

She will start doing it herself, doesn't want help until she needs it, and (fortunately) allows us to check it and make comments.... If she has done anything wrong... she's OK with having to correct it.

They get a list of what to do from school with them... One of the questions was "Can you make two sentenses with the practice-words"... Her answer was a simpel "Yes"... Wonderful..

Handbal is hers...

She started 3 weeks ago. Many girls (and some boys) are playing in a team and she wanted to join. We brought her to the training and she did great. No chance of hearing anything the trainer said to her, but looking at the other children will get you a long way. She has good coordination, throws the ball fine (her dad - former low-level baseball player / catcher practiced with her before the first training...) and is totally at ease...

So much at ease there, that we're no longer allowed to accompany her to the training.. Well... dropping her of  is OK, but not into the training hal...

Last sunday her first games. A tournament in another part of town and she did great... Got a medal for it.. YES..!!

Hearing is hers...
From the phase where hearing was never an issue, where she just put on the CI and went to school, it now becoms clear to her that she has problems to hear at times..
Last week, children had to read aloud from a book. Some of the girls in the classroom speak very softly... Children away from these girls have no possibility to hear them. Nor has Lotte.
The teacher is very committed to making sure Lotte understands everything... So, she asked Lotte.. "Can you hear what they say.?" Lotte couldn't, and "had to" admit that. Thoughtful as the question was... I think that Lotte felt that she was the only one that couldn't hear whas was read aloud..
The teacher explained to her that the girls were reading very softly.... and that she herself couldn't hear then, and the other children couldn't hear either..  But I think Lotte didnt get much of that explanation...
She came home and explained to us that she had trouble understanding others...
That was a first time for us to hear her talk about not being able to hear. (we didn't know the circumstances yet. We were updated later by the teached.. It's great to have such an engaged teacher working with Lotte..)
We comforted her and she forgot about it, and after we got the message from the teacher about what happened, we were able to get back to the incident and explain to Lotte that it was not just she that didn't hear, but many children in the claas, including the teacher.
In retrospect, when a child is speaking so low that other children can't understand what's being said, it would be best to ask any child but Lotte if he/she can hear what's being said... That way, Lotte will understand that other children have the same problem as she.. This time, she thought it was just her..
(Isn't hindsight wonderfull... as they say... "Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.")

This week the school started to use a soundsystem for the classroom...
More about this later

Home.. alone

Well...
the posts don't come as often as before.. and I guess that's good sign... Milestones are further apart .. or perhaps less visible. Or perhaps we're just too busy..
Vacation is over. Today was the first day of school, and Lotte had no problem adjusting to it..
But... I'm here to share another milestone....

We left Lotte "home alone"...
Needed to do some groceries, and Lotte was not eager to join us. Nor did we feel an urge to tell her that she HAS to come with us..
So.. we left her with "her" mobile phone (don't tell her.. she assumes it's hers, but we have not officially given it to her), set her up with her mothers mobile number and after some ground rules we left.
One of the ground rules was "Not to allow anyone in the house".... Lotte was quick to correct us that her brother and sister surely would be allowed to enter... We humbly acknowledged our mistake...

200m from the house... Lotte calling....
"Can my friend come in" - (son of our neighbours"..??
We answered that that was OK..

500m from the house... Lotte calling...
"He already left." - (apparently the video Lotte was watching did not interest the boy..)

She was good. Some more calls were made, to get the most out of her new freedom. She enjoyed it.
And we enjoyed it as well. Lotte was so at ease with calling us.... just wonderful..

So, with this episode, another milestone passed with warp speed. We hardly saw it... Well, that's not entirely true... It's more like an exit on the highway... "Milestone 1000m ahead" and then passing it at warp speed....


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btw...
She nowadays just opens the pouches herself in order to remove the CI from there, and hangs it on her ear by herself.... Giving all the freedom to be the chatterbox on the phone - or mobile phone....
Putting it back... well, that still requires the assistance of someone else....

Happy New Year !!

During the X-mas time, grandmother was visiting us. Always great... Like she's coming home.. Also for her.. :-) It's a wonderful opportunity for Lotte to play even more games, talk more and read aloud to whoever wants to listen... and during these times, that's grandma.

But these relaxing times around christmas (e.g. breakfast here at about 10:00) make it easy for all of us to interact more.. A lot of time spent at breakfast, and dinner which is great for Lotte to listen, speak and be corrected when needed.
Because, in a way, all communication is therapy. Asking for things at the table will teach her to wait for her turn when she wants something, to pronounce it correctly. To say "please" and "thank you" etc. And - even more important, to listen to others... That when a question starts with "Lotte" that she starts focusing immediately...
And the longer the meal... the longer the "therapy"..






Grandma is a great help, and it's wonderful to have her with us. She even started to learn Norwegian (She is Dutch, like the rest of us..) because she doesn't want to miss out when her grandchildren and we speak Norwegian with our friends.
So, here Lotte is reading a Norwegian book to her. And explaining what it means....

So wonderful.. and one almost forgets that here's a deaf child teaching her grandmother another language..

WOW.!!

Calling grandma

Using the telephone is no longer a problem.
We need to help putting the CI from the shoulder to her ear, but otherwise she is using it like every one else
It's great to see her waiting for her turn, and when she finally has it, she will wander through the house, (have a look here..) pointing at things as if her grandma can see her... Very typical..

She has no problems understanding the other end. When I talk to her, I know I have to get her to focus on listning, instead of just talking...
.. but that could be a female thing.. nothing to do with the ability to hear.. ;-)