Pictures missing..

Noticed that there are a lot of pictures missing in the blog.
I will try to restore them..... but it will take some time..

So, if you find some strange posts.... that could be the reason...
(And please... feel free to comment on where you think pictures are missing..)

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.

Lotte's calling

We have used the phone for quite a while now. Speaker-phones are great and have been in use by Lotte for quite a while. She'll get the phone and start walking through the house - talking with grandma, or anyone else willing to listen to her.

Handheld is fine as well, but it requires the earpiece to be held by her shoulder, since that's where she has the processor. Still, she is perfectly able to understand what is being said.

Yesterday, I had a clear conversation with her.
Previously, it would be Lotte that would be talking, but yesterday I was able to make her listen to my questions, and I got the answers I was expecting.
Her vocabulary is increasing fast now, in Dutch and Norwegian, so that makes it more easy to ask & answer.

But it was just great to realize that she has access to other people that are not within reach, and she realizes that.

At the time of writing, I am working offshore.

So, when my wife was talking to me, I heard Lotte say that she wanted to talk to me. She wanted to tell about her day...

Have to love it !

Wear on the coils..

With the way Lotte is wearing her CI, the BTE's on her shoulders, there's quite some stretching involved when she puts them on herself when they fall off. (Have to make a video of it... here it is)

Here are some pictures of the damage that is done to the coils. Mind you, they last
quite long. What you see is the result of 4 to 6 months.

The first picture shows a torn outer "casing" that protects the wires running inside. The second picture shows twisting due to the constant handling by Lotte. (This actually doesn't happen any more. It was from quite some time ago.)

BTW.. the coils shown still work fine. We only replaced them to make sure Lotte will not "lose sound" because the coil would fail during the day. I think this happened only once or twice in the time Lotte used CI. (3 years almost.)

It's not all fun....

Actually, she was just playing out.... telling me "NOT" to make a picture of her....

She has become more and more verbal. Getting more sure of herself.

Yesterday she played all afternoon with a new friend.

And a glass of juice is too good to ignore.. "First things first.."

BTE or Bodyworn...??

This will allways be a question when the child starts with CI, and even more so when the child has bilateral CI.

When Lotte was one of the first to be implanted bilaterally, the Freedom had just been developed and even though she got "Freedom" on the inside, the outside was the old Nucleus. So the only bodyworns available to us (Lotte) were the "big" cases, and two of them would have been massive.

(I believe the one on the right is the bodyworn at the time....)

So, the Ci-team proposed to use the BTE's, but after picking them up 15 times an hour (per ear...), we decided that on the ear would not work. 2 coils and 2 BTE's that can loosen and fall off is too much to handle....

(Also, Lotte allways pulled off the HA's and we were not looking forward to a similar behaviour with the CI's'. In retrospect, she has never taken off the CI's. We have been fortunate with that..)

Being the engineer in the family, I clipped off the fingers of an old wollen glove, put the BTE's in the fingers, a safetypin through it and pinned them on the shoulders of Lotte...

That worked fine, without too much falling off of the coils. Plus, no need to hang the BTE on the ear.... That is allways secured (and can allways be found..)

We tried a couple of time times to put it behind the ear, but the combination of earsize and BTE-size is not compatible. Doublesided tape etc. could work, but Lotte really disliked that solution. After all, she is used to the ears on the shoulder, so why bother?

To give an impression of the difference, here are two pictures. One with the bodyworn, one with the BTE's on the shoulder..

....... vs .......

Coil+Earhanger+Bodyworn ....... vs ....... Coil+BTE (click to enlarge)

So, for the last 2-1/2 years she has worn them on her shoulders and without any problems. This includes playing outside in the sand 50% of the time when she's at the kindergarten, and the BTE never failed and was never lost. Also, the staff there can just put the coil on when Lotte for some reason cannot do it herself or simply forgets (in the beginning she would just not bother. Nowaday, she immediately puts them on..). There's no hastle with tape, glue, ear-hangers that go in the ear or caps.

As mentioned, the only thing that can fall off is the coil-piece, but soon she figured out how to put that back. Actually, that is a small disadvantage. By putting them back herself, she is putting some tension on the coil-cable, but the are pretty strong.

Remember, there's nothing on her ear, nothing in the ear, nothing on the head, except for the coil. The BTE's are safe on her shoulders.

We were worried about the BTE's under the coat for example (scratching sounds), but she has no problems with hearing when they are under the coat. Guess the coat id holding the BTE's steady so there is no scratching.)

Advantages:

* You will never loose the BTE. It's secured,

* Only the coil can fall off. The child can put it back her/him-self,

* Much lighter than the bodyworn,

* Still accessable (sp?) for the parent to change programs,

* BTE's are spaced out wider than the ears, so (I think) perception where sound comes from is better,

* We use a safetypin to attach it to the clothes so it can easily be changed from one piece to another,

* No need to buy/make special pockets in clothing, just 2 little bags with safetypins,

* When raining the BTE's will be under the clothes. (and as said, she'll still hear without problems), when there's much wind, it will also be protected from that, not causing weird sounds,

* ...... I'll think of some more - to be added later
* ...... You'll think of some more - Put it in a comment, and I'll add it.

Disadvantages:

* Possibly: Sound has to be picked up from the shoulders, (but that does not seem to affect her hearing capability. She hears a pin drop on the table... literally!),

* Possibly: Scratching sound when a coat is worn over the BTE's but we have not seen any problems,

* Cannot use rechargable batteries,

WRONG! - got info (See comments) that they are available.... only in Canada and USA??? Not here, but we will be working on it !!

* There's strain on the coil-wire when the child puts it back her/him-self, (but in the last 2-1/2 year only 1 failed.),

* There will be holes in the clothes when the fabric is thin, (but how long do these cloths last anyway..),

* ...... I'll think of some more - to be added later* Possibly: Localising sound after hearing it, initially cannot be done by turning head. The shoulders would need to turn. But like with us, we allready know where it comes from when we turn our head...

* ...... You'll think of some more - Put it in a comment, and I'll add it.

Do want to mention, that recently we started to use the BTE on the ear.

We have a feeling, call it a hunch, that Lotte wouldn't like to have the BTE's pinned on her bare skin, so at bedtime, straight out of the bath-tub or from the shower, we put the coils with the short wires on the BTE and hang them on the ears. She's OK with that but still prefers to wear them on the shoulders. But she needs to get used to it anyway.

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.!

Cards, and the color-balancing game!

Some time ago, we bought a nice game...

Just a wooden structure with a round "table" hanging suspended from the pole...

2 dice with 6 colors, and 6 sets (colors) of 4 pins of different sizes that have to be put on the bord... which is balancing on just the string....

Lotte loves the game... of course... pins crashing to the floor are allways good entertainment, but in addition to the fun, she learns the colors, to wait for her turn, to be careful putting the pins on, and to handle failure... Actuall, the last would have been true had it not been so much fun to let them crash.

In addition, Lotte loves to play "Kwartetten". No idea how to translate that, but it's about making a set of 4 with cards... Getting the combination of the cow-horse-sheep-chicken, or car-boat-airplane-motorbike... etc.

She'll even cheat with that game.... (excellent... within limits of course...)

But again, she's learning to ask, learning words etc.

Lotte's dollshouse

As allways, each morning Lotte is up before anyone else. Not being allowed to wake up the others, she will play in her room. Reading her books, playing with the duplo, putting on her clothes... plenty to do before the rest wakes up.

Yesterday she went out of her room, and started playing with the dolls-house.
It's right outside all the bedrooms, so we can hear her.

Complete role-plays are performed. Dolls are instructed what to do... by Lotte and by the other dolls... and remember, she's deaf as she is doing all this.
Her CI is not on !!

In addition, she speaks Norwegian as she does all this. All other conversations in the house are in Dutch, but by herself she'll use Norwegian.

We have seen this before with the other children. They learn - or duplicate - these games in the kindergarten and they will use the language that is used at the time. In fact, they will even use the appropriate dialect. Not the raw, local dialect, but the sofisticated dialect that one hears in Oslo and a lot on TV....

It's all explainable, but still.... our girl... completely deaf, and playing in Norwegian.....

It's great!!

Bedtime ballerina

Lotte had gone to bed and was allowed to read a bit before falling asleep.
Suddenly I heard Vivaldi's Four Seasons and wondered where that came from. In her bed, Lotte was lying on her pillow, playing with a little musicbox.

When you open it, a little pink ballerina will do her pirouettes. Lotte was carefully following the ballerina's movements with her index-finger, totally oblivious of the fact that there was music involved.

I went into her room and put one coil of Lottes CI to her head .
You should have seen the sun and the stars that came through! That smile said more than a thousand words, and will probably be one of the most beautiful ones I will ever see.

O, blissfull motherhood........

Mous

Sisterly love....

Today another change in time became clear. It is not that Lotte and her sister quarrel a lot, because they don't. But whereas before the reason for quarrelling mainly would be because of misunderstanding or lack of communication, we now see (or more accurately: hear) a shift to quarrelling because of Lotte becoming more and more able to be verbally argumentativ.


I'm virtually allergic to hear my kids quarrel, but in this case it's like music to my ears!

Mous

A tribute to Lotte's brother and sister...

It has been said before, and I have no problem repeating it here again. Lotte is blessed with her brother and sister. They help her, teach her, amuse her and at times ignore her.... but all of it helps Lotte to grow..

Here a couple of pictures of 3 very good friends....

Reading with Lotte.

One of the most important things to do with children is to read to them.
It will give them a feeling for words, for rhytm, rhyme, pronounciation etc. There's a direct link between the amount of reading a child gets (read to or reading themselves) and the performance at school.

Today Lotte's mum was reading from the "Mijn eerste Van Dale", a book with rhymes for little children, going through the whole ABC...
Lotte loves to do this. Loves to learn new words.

The book is obviously for all 3 children, but for the others we also bought the "Junior Spreekwoordenboek" a dictionairy with uhh. (cannot recall the english word.....) proverbs. (Thanks to this website)
It's great for them. Stimulates them to read, search for info elsewhere than on the internet.
They love it and read with grandma (who's staying with us), learning all kinds of new proverbs.


In addition... (the ease of the internet allows you to click on yet another item to buy) we bought the "Van Dale Praktijkgids voor Spelling". Not living in Holland, we have to make sure the kids can write proper Dutch.