Prisha has new hearing aids

At the portfolio day in school

Good work done Prisha,we are proud of you

   I needed to do this post long back.But was waiting do just see the outcome and not feel too pleased at the beginning.The audiologist at Geers had told us she would try new hearing aids Naida III from Phonak in the left ear to help her hear better. Mrs Zellhorst had already increased her hearing capacity to maximum with the Siemens Artis but she needed to change and do better with her hearing.But when we reached there she said (I too was of the same opinion) she would like to change for both ears as the same group hearing aids make for better hearing.So we had Naida III for both years, which are capable of compressing high frequency sounds into low frequency range.So they do not miss out anything and are great for the hearing loss.
   So 15th of October it was , and what a day!! Prisha was given new hearing aids, molds and tubes and they were already tuned to the required levels.The moment we switched them on, prisha just opened her eyes wide.She looked a bit shocked if I could say so.We asked her how they were, she said good. Then we started her puretone test.She started to respond so well slowly that Mrs.Z too looked amazed.She signalled my husband to show no response on his face as that can affect the way the kids respond too.I could see with the corner of my eye, how happy and emotional they looked.I could see their eyes slowly turning misty.After the test, she looked so happy and proud and I loved the fact that Mrs.Z was so involved that she seemed a part of our happiness.We love you Mrs.Z!! She tuned it so well that her aided audiogram was at 20db!!!!Prisha was actually hearing such a vast spectrum and that too without our being loud! It was 1st time in her entire hearing age! We all had tears which we tried to hide.Prisha too smiled shyly and said she was hearing very well with the new aids.On the way home she was so tired and wanted to sleep in the car.She started to complain to us that she couldn't sleep as the sound of rain was disturbing her! We were so happy at this complain and just enjoyed that moment.Next few days we started to observe her and we need actually not strain our voices. Which was such a relief for us.I then realized that just because I was loud and so focused on her speech and language , she was able to pick it up inspite of the low amplification.I will follow up on it and will not rest till I question my audiologist back in India.Was it done on purpose, so that out of frustration I would consider CI , which has been a case in India with many?I would take this up seriously.
   We have had to many changes since then, the mold was giving trouble and we went to correct it and small changes with the gains.And then we had a set back, Mrs.Z fell sick and has to go through a surgery and may not able to come to work this year. We have been praying for her health.She is such a lovely person and kids love her and so do we!
   Prisha has been hearing pretty well in class.The teacher at school are happy and say she is very attentive.We too worked hard at home to put what she had lost in so many years.She had issues in school as he wasn't hearing enough and plus concepts being new, accent to deal with and to top it our laid back attitude for 4 months in our transition here, took a toll on her language.We have been working on her slowly and steadily last 6-8 weeks and are seeing results.She is reading, writing and using new vocabulary.I had kind words pouring in from the German teacher,Art teacher,Drama teacher, where they told me she was very focused, attentive, good eye contact, good concentration and they had no issues with her.Which was great for us.We also had her class portfolio last week and we saw her work.Her maths was new to us and so we could not do any support from home, but in her unit of inquiry, we saw a huge change.Her weekend news was good to see as we revised that from home.There was a page in the beginning, where she could not say a word and the teacher just about could not make her a thing, to her relating and teacher writing out and she copying, to her copying from the board to now she writing the whole week end news by herself! To add to it , her drama teacher came in to us and gave such a positive feedback.She said prisha is a beautiful child and she gives undivided attention,quick response to actions and vocals.She was skeptical about her response initially when she knew about her impairment.But she is thrilled at the way prisha follows all instructions spot on and is very expressive with herself and she told us we must continue what we are doing with her.That was great news after the very very depressing news from school 6-8 weeks ago.From rock bottom, we had climbed up.
   Yesterday was her parent teacher conference.We were going with not too much great feedback from the school.We were surprised, as the teacher gave a great feedback. She said, prisha was very attentive, caring,happy child who loves coming to school ,extremely hard working (who would know it better than us) ,followed all instructions and had made a huge leap in her understanding and comprehension and literacy skills.She said we needed to now just fill the gaps here and there and work on her being able to work on her being able to express herself in her own words and longer sentences.She needed to able to summarize the stories in her own words and sequences.She gave us tips on that and she also agreed to meet me every 2 weeks to give me a feedback and things to work on her which was fantastic.She also said she was willing to give Prisha the required push too and help us reach our goal, which is total integration by next June.She also told us that, a speech therapist comes to class everyday for 15 mins to help Prisha understand where required and if she felt she needed more focused work,Mrs.K took her separately in another class alone.We have now all agreed to work in better co-ordination with each other. I am very pleased with my meeting yesterday and hope to keep climbing up from the rock bottom that we had hit 6-8 weeks ago.So, we "Keep Walking".