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.!!

Reading...

New development in the "going to sleep" routine..
Two issues have now been combined...
1: Lotte's early waking in the morning.... which possibly can be "adjusted" by letting her go to sleep later,
2: Importance of reading...

These two are now combined by letting Lotte read for herself.
A bed-lamp had to be installed for this, and I'm sure that for Lotte this has a certain status.... After all, her brother and sister are also allowed to read for themself before they go to sleep.

So, after reading the usual bedtime stories, and some singing, she turns in the BTE's and almost tells us to get out and close the main light... This so that she can start reading herself, cosy in her bed... by her own little light.

We hoped she would read until 21:00 so that she would wake up later... as in 07.00...
However, even though she really likes reading... she "passes out" in no time. She manages to read for 5 to 10 minutes and then she falls asleep.
Book on her nose, belly.. whatever was the last position, and Lotto KO....

But beautiful to see. The love for books. So important for any child, and even more for these children....

How the CI works...

Just discovered a nice animation on how the CI works.. by MedEl

In my links on the left, I have allready some animations, for example this one which is very good.

If someone else found some good ones, tell me so in the "comments" section below.

Technology... can we really compare HA's and CI's?...

It's easy to compare cochlear implant (CI) with a hearing aid (HA) and frequently this is done in a single breath. However, not by people that have used a HA before, and now use the CI. They explain that CI goes beyond HA. Not just a little, but a lot. For Lotte we have no comparison other than she did not benefit - in our opinion - from HA's.

But there's another part of the equasion that is quickly forgotton. And that is the CI of 10 years ago, compared to now. I quickly compare to our computer now and 10 years ago. We cannot imagine using a 10-year computer with the programs we use nowaday's. It simply will slow down to a complete halt.

This is how I see CI as well. 10 Years ago, software and hardware were far slower and perhaps this brought the CI's closes to the HA in most respects. After all. With the speeds available at that time, all processing power needed to be used for speech. But nowadays, technology has become so much faster, that with the same capacity a wider frequency-range can be used. And is used.

Manufacturers are moving more and more into virtual electrodes and creating software specialised to enjoying music. The new CI-user is no longer satisfied with "just" speech but wants to go beyond that. More environmental sounds and music.

With Lotte we see her speech development which is going well, but more impressive is the level at which she hears. She is able to hear very soft sounds. She's able to whisper, and understand whispering.
But with music she shows little interest. She uses melody but sings in a monotone way..
Is this due to her development or is this due to mapping being focused on speech?

The technician mapping her is very good at his job. He has done it from the first time CI came around, and in a way made it possible for many children and adults to hear.
But this might be the problem. Focus has allways be on speech for him. THIS was the goal and accomplishment. The achievement was to go from deaf to hearing to understanding speech. There was technically never room to go beyond speech, and perhaps this is still the attitude and expectation. Even though technology has moved one, the idea of hearing more than speech is still foreign.

Obviously I'm lacking knowledge in this area. What are the possibilities with Freedom CI. She has the latest equipment both inside and outside, but I have no idea as to what level it is being used.
What I do know is that Lotte is developing well, speech-wise, and that she has never had a bad experience with CI in the way that she does not want to wear it. She hardly pulls it off due to discomfort and is quick to put it on again.
But, there must be more possibilities. Other companies advertise with their progress (e.g. Advance Bionics, MedEl), showing the possibilities, but little is heared when we do our mapping.

Time to investigate!!
--------------------
Cochlear - Smart Sound - Much information in the Global White Papers (Have to log in)
Advanced Bionics - Hi-Res FDA approval - HiResWFidelity120.pdf (Available for adults only) - Bilateral Study Overview
MedEl - FineHearing

Reading list... Literature.

Thought it would be a good idea to gather books here that we read... (AllDeaf)
If you make a comment with some new books, make sure you add a publishing date because for CI-related books, 3-year old books are allready OLD!

Books & films regarding deafness, deaf culture, history
Research
* "Seeing Voices" by Oliver Sachs - 1990
* "Mask of Benevolence" by Harlan Lane - 1993 (The CI-part of the book is really out of date and really not valid any more.)
* "A Journey into the Deaf-World" by Harlan L. Lane, et al - 1996
* "When the mind Hears" by Harlan Lane - 1989
* "Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness in Martha's Vineyard" by Nora Groce - 1988
* "Laurent Clerc - The Story of His Early Years" by Cathryn Carroll - 1991
* "The History of Deaf People" by Per Eriksson - 1993
* "Laurant Clerc: The Story of His Early Years" by Cathryn Carroll - 2002
* "Deaf World - A Historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook" - Edited by Lois Bragg - 2001
* "Når noen ikke hører" by Sissel Marit Grønlie - 1995
* "Spelend leren horen" by Gisela Batliner - 2003 (Translated from German)
* "Norske Døves Tegnspråk" by Marit Vogt-Svendsen - 1997
* "The History of Deaf People - A Source book " by Per Eriksson - 1993
* "Att växa som döv. - En antologi" - Åsa Hammar & Bo Andersson - 1988
* "Innføring i lingvistikk" - Endresen, Simonsen og Sveen -1996

(Non-)Fiction
* "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson Cullers - 2004
* "Deafening" by Frances Itani - 2003
* "In This Sign" by Joanne Greenberg - 1984

Movies
* "Sound and Fury" by Josh Aronson and Scott Davidson (Documentary)
* "Mr. Holland's Opus" Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation - 1996 (Film)
* "Children Of A Lesser God" Paramount Home Entertainment - 1986 (Film)

Books and films regarding CI
* "Cochlear Implants in Children - Ethics and Choices" by John B. Christiansen Irene and W. Leigh - 2002
* "Sound and Fury" by Josh Aronson and Scott Davidson (Documentary)
* "Sound and Fury - Six years later" (Documentary)
* "Cecilia's Story Introduction" and "Hearing Your Life " available from by Advance Bionics (Documentary)
* "Jacobs journey" available from Cochlear (Documentary)
* "A høre til.... - Samtaler med foreldre" - Liv Strand - 2003
* "Se mitt språk! - Språkbok - en innføring i norsk tegnspråk " - Nora Edwardsen Mosand & Ann Kristin Malmquist - 1996

Experience with CI
* "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human" by Michael Chorost - 2006
* "Wired for Sound: A Journey into Hearing" by Beverly Biderman - 1999