Where to start..

Lotte has made a jump again... indicated by erratic behaviour, being tired like other times she grew mentally again.
Suddenly she is taking more control of her life. It's wonderful to see.
Her vocabulary is still improving. It's noticeable that with her growing mental capacities she get's jokes quicker. She is anticipating in the conversation.. making small, to the point remarks and replying in ways that were not there 3 months ago..Smart comebacks etc... Wonderful..

Socially she's busy with friends that she invites and/or visits. With any other child that would like to go to a friend and asks to call her friend, we would reply that she can just go there...
With Lotte we are happy for her to use the phone. She loves to use it, and has no problems with it.
Appointments are made to meet at different places, invitations are sent, and when she's out, she has her mobile phone with her to call us to ask when she needs to be home... She uses it well..

At school she is keeping up, despite the time she spends playing outside. It's a small dilemma... Homework or social activities... The social part often wins...
But she likes to do homework... probably because of the respect she has for the teacher... The teachers will is law..!.
She seems to have the brain for languages. Like her mother...
A week ago we had a long conversation in English. She now has enough vocabulary to make short sentences and loves to show her capabilities.
Math is a little problematic.. The tables 1-10 go in slowly, and probably by photographic memory.. But she's not the only one in her class... There are many other children that have the same problem... Guess she doesn't have the brain for math... yet... It will come...(Update here..)

Otherwise.. Lotte uses different languages for different activities as we discovered lately..
A good example is when she comes from school. When asked about her day (in Dutch) she will be brief. To the point. When our (Norwegian) neighbour asks, she starts chatting away and keeps on talking... Many stories..Obviously, school experiences need to be discussed in Norwegian...
Stories about the vacation in Holland will be in Dutch... Exciting to watch these kind of developments...

Time for X-mas with her grandmother from Holland staying with us.
Seeing her chat away with her is looking at the everyday wonder that CI provides.. Magic.

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....

OK... it's not English.... .... :-)

.... it's Dutch... but it's not about you understanding what Lotte is saying, it's about Lotte understanding what she's hearing....  And she does....

Click here to watch

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.. ;-)

Hearing... with the shoulders, and the ears...

Lotte is doing great.
As previously, a vacation with 1 language is doing her good. Not that there are problems with her speaking Norwegian and Dutch when at school and home (besides... she loves to speak English as well..) but having people around her - especially children - that only speak Dutch helps her by focusing on 1 language.
The vacation went well. She understands much more, which gives her more security regarding upcoming events. Life makes sense when it's 7 days and then the plane, 10 days and then to Italy, 8 days and then a birthday.
The pictures here show Lotte in "Openluchtmuseum Arnhem", the outdoor museum in Arnhem. Lots of historical Dutch houses, trams, cars etc. A peek view into the past. One of the exhibitions was about the history of Holland and the "Molukken" in the second part of the 20th century. (1950's sounds closer by :-) ... btw... A sad, badly handled piece of Dutch history.)

Lotte wanted to listen to some information, and as you can see, she hears with the shoulders.
It was nice to see that for her it was an automatic, natural way to do it. With the phone we tend to put the BTE on the ear, and she can speak freely. Here, she went her own way, and put the speaker straight at the shoulders...

Even though we can see that Lotte is doing well with the BTE's on the shoulders, on her back, we were wondering what the real difference is between the that position and on the ears.
The Norwegian support group has alway been pushing for it, like anywhere else in the world, and supplied us with baby-worn stuff.

Clips to keep the BTE on the clothes. Worthless in our opinion. Far too bulky. Not an option to start using that. The pouches we are using now, with their different ways of attaching (clips or safety-pin) is working far too well.

In order to put the BTE on the ear, a clip (snugfit) is provided that holds the processor, and of which the end can be bent around the bottom of the ear. Since we have no desire to start using earplugs to secure the BTE, this seemed like a good thing.......

The batteries can be on the back due to a special cable... So, the weight of the battery is removed from the ears... but there is still a cable down the back... or front, wherever preferred.... (armpit.. Hmm..) .

We were still not convinced, or motivated.... so we thought about finding someone to experiment for us... To see how much difference there was..
The idea was that we would send long coils (We understand they are very expensive..) and two little bags to a Bi-lateral Freedom CI -user that would be willing to try it out and give us feedback about the difference between the BTE on the ears and on the shoulders...
Via some people from messageboards we came across Laurie Pullins. (See her blog entry here..) She was very willing to give it a try, so we send her Lottes old "bags" (we have plenty of them thanks to Kylie) and some used coils that we keep as spare.

This was before the holidays, and the result was in when we came back..


Laurie indicated that there was a difference. Here's part of her experience..

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.... .....I did notice that when I put my CI's on my shoulders with the little pouches you gave me, that my voice sounded distant and "nasal" like I was in a swimming pool. This did not change after a few days. But, the brain is amazing and would probably have adjusted just fine over time if I kept them that way.

When I was Lotte's age, I wore a body aid and my microphones were on my chest. I never knew anything different until I went to the BTE's (Behind the Ear) in my 20's. And I adjusted.
Also, I am an adult and the distance from my ears to my shoulders and the pouches between my shoulders is probably greater than a child like Lotte. Her CI's are probably closer to her ears from her shoulders than mine were.
Because I use the phone and have to change my batteries regularly, it was not easy having my CI's on my shoulders. I had to hang the CI on my ear so I could use the phone and take them off (out of the pouches) to change the batteries. You probably do all that for your daughter.
As for "surround sound" with the bilaterals, no difference.

That is all I can think of. If I think of anything else, I will let you know. .........

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Needless to say, this was great information, and we decided that we would start testing the BTE on the ear.
Our main worry is if the BTE stays on. We never needed to worry about losing it.
So, last weekend we did the test.

Converted the BTE+AccuLong Coil to Earhook+BTE+Short Coil+Accu. Required the magnets to be moved between the coils.. but OK...
Then for putting it on the ears.
We realised.... Lotte doesn't have an indentation on the bottom of the ear. No earlobe.... Whatever it's called, the hook has nothing to hook around. (Take a peek..)
Lotte's mom doesn't have it either. I do, and Lotte's brother and sister both do... without ever using it.. :-)

Still.... it was "hanging in there"... and Lotte didn't mind the change.
It was pretty obvious that having the Accu's on the back is no real improvement compared to the BTE's on the back.
So..... the complete BTE on the ear. Again, same problem, but the weight actually helps pinning it down. So.... forward with that contraption..
It was great to see her use it immediately... Picking up a phone at will (without us needing to adjust the BTE from the back to the ear), and when asked if the sound was different, she acknowledged that. However.... I'm not sure if she understood the question.... I think it's one of the moments that she guesses the right answer....
All well, until the next morning.... She came to us, crying, upset, because her "ear" was broken.
Turned out it dropped from her ear, and the connection between the Battery/Accu-holder and the processor was damaged. (A bayonet-type connection where three lips hook into the other side. 2 lips were broken off)
Some tape keeping the two pieces together fixed the problem until the new processor arrives...

So.... we went back to the BTE on the shoulder... We do keep it up much higher, and closer to the neck instead of low on the back. This is a bit more awkward when carrying the schoolbag, but who knows, perhaps it makes a difference.

What we did find out is that (if) any reduction in sound Lotte is perceiving does not weigh up to the ease of using the BTE on the shoulders. Not worrying about losing it, getting sand in it etc.
We also found out that for Lotte it makes no difference.
Another thing is - which we realised when we put the BTE's on the front instead on the back, is that when people see Lotte, they see her first, and then they will see a BTE or a coil. Not the other way around.
With girls, a BTE is easily covered by long hair, but with boys, a BTE on the ears is very obvious... Not a reason to remove it from the ears, but when we were experimenting, this was one of the realisations..

So, we're requesting a new processor, and continue with the BTE's on the shoulders. A bit more conscious about where on the shoulders, but still.... on the shoulders..

Telephone

For the most, this blog is for us to log how Lotte is doing. Keeping a record that will allow us to look back regarding when things happened. Another big part is sharing our experiences with other people. Parents that are in the same situation, or getting there, and other people that are interested. But documenting Lotte's progress is definitely an important motive for the blog.
of those things to document is Lotte using the telephone. It shows her understanding of other people's speech without the ability to read lips.

Lotte has been using the telephone for some time. (See here for some posts.) From her side it always went without problems... The other side probably had another idea of it. (And I have been there plenty of times.) Understanding her is difficult sometimes, but her pronunciation is improving all the time. Also, she is more and more capable of telling a story, or experience, in a coherent way.

The video below is one of those moments where she is very exited and wants to tell everything at the same time. She slows down later, and basically, when she is finished with her story, she puts the phone down.

It's in Dutch, sorry about that. A Norwegian version could have been possible but will have to wait until later. We are working on the English versions of Lotte's telephone conversations... it will come.. :-) (reminds me... she learned some English rhymes.... time to post them as well. Have to find them first.... Found it!)

End of the bags....??? Not yet..

Typical !
I'm explaining to people about Lotte's CI-bags, how she doesn't want them any other way, and then it happens..

She comes to me and says "Daddy, can the CI on the ears? I want to have a fat tummy."
She means - "a naked tummy" - no shirt. It's warm outside, and her sister goes without shirt, so obviously, Lotte wants to go like that as well.
However, she realizes the BTE's cannot be on her shoulders. But, being shirtless is an OK excuse to allow the BTE's on the ears.

So, to prevent changing the long for short cables, I made a pony-tail and put the cables through the elastic band as well... This way, they will not just fall off...

We'll see how Lotte likes it. Seems to be OK... Putting them back herself is not working for her. She has to ask someone else. No surprise there, she's never had them on the ears for more than 5 minutes, if that much at all.

And now no hassle with calling anymore on the phone. With the BTE's on the shoulder, when she wanted to use the telephone, we would transfer the BTE to her ear - with her permission of course.

Update:
She wore them continuously in the house, until we had to go out to the store. Then, she wanted to get a shirt on and hence, BTE's on the shoulder..

Oh boy..... what to do with little girls that know what they want ??

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 !

Telephone Milestone...

In the weekend, Lotte's mum was visiting a friend and took Lotte's sister with her.

Of course, in the morning we still call to say "Good morning" to each other.

Lotte was in the bedroom when I was talking to my wife, and insisted to speak with her.

Normally, we would use the speakerphone, but the one in the bedroom doesn't have this feature, so.... I gave her the phone and put the earpiece close to the CI.

And... no problem. My wife asked simple questions, and Lotte understood it all without any problems. (or better said, with just as much problems as in one to one conversation..)
Of course Lotte was proud to finally use the telephone as all others do, and enjoyed the time on the phone.... sometimes putting the earpiece close to her ear, which - with the processors on her back - does not really help...

Another milestone.... and a big one.

Lotte using the telephone...

Well, by using the speaker. With her CI's on the back, understanding via the horn might be a stretch.
But she loves to use it, and at times will ask to talk to "oma" (grandma).

Yesterday we had grandma on the line and so that all three kids can get involved, the speaker was used. The effect of this being that Lotte will start babbling continously. She just wants to get her story across to her grandmother.

Problem is, when one doesn't know what has happened with Lotte the last days, understanding her is very difficult. So, normally we will tell in advance what happened. But Lotte is happy with some "yes'" and "no's" and will keep on explaining.... and explaining.... and singing...

Yesterday we actually relieved one of the grandmothers by stopping the conversations, and ringing the other one. Fortunately, she had time as well to speak - make that listen - to Lotte.
Lotte sang her songs, and listened to the songs from her oma.
It was great to watch this special time with her grandmother....