First Day of Preschool 2014

Audrena started preschool today. Her IEP team has a big year planned for her, and hopefully it will bring great things. Audrena will attend the "regular" preschool in the morning, then speech, lunch, recess, and Early Childhood preschool in the afternoon. She has a wonderful SLP-A (Speech-Language Pathologist's Assistant) who will be with her during the school day this year. We are so excited for all of the language learning and wonderful progress that she should make this school year! We are very thankful for a good school district with dedicated professionals as well.

This morning we arrived at school, took the obligatory "first day" picture in front of the school's sign, and barged into the SLP's office. Audrena loves her, and that's the first place she wants to go when she gets to school, whether she should be going to speech or not. So the SLP walked with us to take big brother Kelton to his kindergarten classroom and then on to the preschool room. Audrena saw her Early Childhood teacher and thought she should go right into that classroom. We had to explain that she has a new classroom in the morning. Once we were in the door, she found the ramp and a toy car, gave me a dismissive wave and a quick, "Bye bye!" That was it. She wouldn't even turn toward me for a quick picture. The SLP-A offered to take a picture later and send it to me, but I had what I really needed...a happy girl on her first day of school.

Our Summer Vacation

This year we were able to attend the summer parent workshop at The Moog Center for Deaf Education. What an amazing place! We learned so much, and we totally recommend attending if you have a deaf or hard-of-hearing child! Totally. I will warn you, though, by the time the workshop is over you will want to pack your belongings and move to St. Louis. They are that good.

While we were there, they did some evaluations on Audrena. The results were not quite what we had hoped to see, but we are thankful that we were able to bring the report back and make some positive changes on Audrena's IEP that should help her make good progress. We have a good school district to work with, and we still hope to meet the goal of having Audrena caught up by kindergarten.

In order to make the stars align for us to be able to attend the workshop, we needed someone to care for Reyana and Kelton. Thank God for family. My sister was able to go with us to St. Louis so that we could make a vacation out of it. She cared for the big kids while we attended the workshop from 9:00-3:00 each day. They swam in the pool and relaxed in the hotel suite. In our free time, we were able to go to the St. Louis Zoo, The Magic House Children's Museum, and The Gateway Arch. It was a great family vacation, and I can't thank my sister enough for making it possible! Here are just a few photos I have readily available on my phone.

People have always told us that Audrena would be the first deaf woman president. Maybe they were right....

My sister stayed at the bottom with Audrena while we took Reyana and Kelton up inside of The Gateway Arch. Here we are waiting for the "car" to pick us up.

We were assigned to "car" 3 on the way up.

Siblings of Children with Hearing Loss

Here is a good article about how to best support the siblings of children with hearing loss. It's something we struggle with in our household. We always feel like Reyana and Kelton give up a lot for Audrena, so we make a conscious effort to do things that involve only them. It's hard. They don't always understand that the therapists are there to help Audrena learn to talk because it looks like play to them. The physical therapy time looks like a fun obstacle course, and they want to participate. Well, Reyana understands a little more because she is the oldest, so she does things like reading bedtime stories to Audrena, knowing on a 7-year-old level that she is helping her little sister. But there are plenty of times when it's just plain unfair that so much of our attention goes to Audrena. It's a balancing act.

South Dakota Senate Bill 122

We have been busy lately. Work, children, Girl Scout cookie sales, and politics have been consuming our time. Yes, politics. I've been busy mailing letters and e-mailing our legislators. Wednesday morning I got up at 4:00 am and drove the 4 hours to Pierre to testify in front of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Then I drove the 4 hours back home. So what was worth 8 hours on the road for such a short time? Children. Particularly children with hearing loss. You see, Senate Bill 122 is an act to require insurance companies to cover audiology services, hearing equipment, and associated therapy for children with hearing loss in South Dakota. What is more worthwhile than giving children a chance to hear and speak to the best of their ability, regardless of whether or not their parents have the financial means to purchase hearing aids and speech therapy? We are fighting. And we are not finished yet. There is more work ahead. But with the support of our fellow South Dakotans we may just succeed. I am asking all South Dakota readers to please contact their legislators (click the link to find yours) and ask for a YES vote on SB122. Pass the message on to your friends. Act quickly because the bill will be heard Monday morning again. Let's give South Dakota's deaf and hard-of-hearing children the chance to speak because our children are the future voice of South Dakota.

P.S. If you listen to the audio on the website, you might just hear me testify. Just know that I was not at my best. I was trying very hard to hold back the tears, so I needed to take deep breaths, and I cut my speech short to give the many other parents behind me a chance to speak as well. We had a great turnout of supporters!

~ Carri

Current Happenings on Audrena's Hearing Journey

We've been wading through the preschool evaluations, and we're almost finished. Currently, we are planning for Audrena to start preschool on March 11th, the day after her 3rd birthday. This whole process has been a new adjustment for us. Just when we think we're getting used to things!

Audrena had programming last week. She had been putting her hands over her ears at loud sounds, so we knew something had changed. It worried us a bit because it happened pretty suddenly and shortly after a bump to the head. As it turns out, her impedances were fine, so she just needed to have the programming tweaked a bit. However, we were surprised when one of her Naida processors gave Dr. M. issues during programming. Then we were even more surprised when the Neptune for the opposite ear caused the programming software to crash. So Advanced Bionics replaced both processors, and when they receive the others they will do some additional testing to see if they can figure out what happened, whether it was a static shock, moisture, or some other issue. It seems that we go through a lot of parts, but we are always pleased with AB's service. We also understand that we are dealing with the newest technology, and that doesn't come without some bugs.

Here is a recent photo of Audrena with her Naida processors. If anyone has any fantastic suggestions for us about how to keep them on, we would love to hear them! Her glasses cause the processors to slide off her ears if they are not secured. Plus, we don't want to take the chance of losing them. We are currently using toupe tape, which works, but her hair gets caught in it. She loses chunks of hair, and some days I think it's a miracle she has any left around her ears. Also, it makes her ears look a little funny because of how the tape sticks. I am going to order some huggies to see if that works. It seems like if there was a product that attached the processors to her glasses they would stay in place better. Maybe I should invent something!

I will leave you with some big news. It's big in our eyes anyway. We are going to attend The Moog Center's Parent Education Workshop in June! We are SO excited! After much debating about whether I could get away from work, whether Randy could get away from work, and what to do with our other children, we decided to just book the trip! My sister plans to go with us, and we'll take the big kids along. Since we will have evenings open to do other things, it will be a family vacation! If one or the other of us is unable to go, we'll adjust our plans and one of us will still attend. We feel like this is going to be a great learning experience, and Audrena will get some fantastic one-on-one time with The Moog Center's personnel!

Derrick Coleman Surprises HOH Girls

Below is a link to a great piece by ABC News about Derrick Coleman, a deaf Seattle Seahawks player, who surprised two hard-of-hearing (HOH) fans and their family with tickets to the Superbowl. I'm not big on football, but I just have one thing to say. Pretty cool, Derrick. Pretty cool.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/01/seahawks-derrick-coleman-surprises-hearing-impaired-girls/