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..

Speaking & hearing & understanding for all..

Trying FM wasn't a big success. (See other posts..) The school had some meeting with the councel and got themself informed about the possibilities for making Lottes learningenvironment better.

One of the conclusions was that having a sound-system in the classroom would be of great benefit to Lotte, and the rest of the class.

So, last week, th school has installed a sound-system in Lotte's classroom. Speakers on the wall, a microphone for the teacher to have around her/his neck, and microphones for all the children.. (well, 1 for every 2 children) so that from now on everyone should be abe to hear and understand everyone else.

We haven't heard yet about how it's working. We understood that on the first day it was available, the teacher used the microphone, but not the kids. But all the kids liked it, and I'm sure they are all looking forward to using the microphone.

It's not just for Lotte, even though she's the reason it's installed. The other children will benefit from better sound, AND they will be trained in speaking in turns. 

Will keep you all informed....

Have a look here... (Norwegian)

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

For the teachers out there... :-)

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

First day of school... again... for the third time....

Third grade already... Time flies.
She'll have new teachers. Not the usual way in Norway. Teachers can stay with the same class / kids for 7 years, but in this case, the class got new ones.

A loss for Lotte as the teacher she had was great. She understood the challenges connected with Lotte, and it took some time to get that experience.
Now, new teachers will have to get their own experiences..
Of course we will have close contact with them and explain the problems. How to make sure that Lotte understands what's been said (Lotte saying "yes" does not mean she understands...). Basically - any message given to Lotte needs to be verified...

But.. Lotte has many friends her age at school that understand her limitations, and will help her.
Some time ago, Lotte's mum said something to Lotte and a friend of Lotte that was visiting...
Lotte said she understood, but the friend said to Lotte "No, she means this / that".. and Lotte
finally understood....
So... even we forget to verify if Lotte gets the message, but fortunately there are some 8-year old safetynets around lotte..