http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBuTnxp_uM
I just uploaded the 1st speech therapy lessons on youtube. The topic being "questions". I found it very useful.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
ASL verses AVT
I have come across this discussion of ASL verses AVT lately.A pediatrician cousin working in US had a discussion with my teacher , Mrs Alaka Hudlikar, also wanted to see how AVT is preferred to ASL. Well after the discussion she too came to the conclusion that AVT is definitely the best way to integrate the deaf child to normal life in the early intervention programme.She says that 99 % of the deaf kids have parents who can hear.They have no clue of the sign language. If they diagnose early , and fit with hearing aids that suit them , next comes language development. To teach the child sign language , the parents first have to learn it as with little kids, they spend maximum time with the mothers.To learn any new language , be it sign or french ,German etc , it would take minimum 2 -3 years to perfect it and then you need people who would communicate with you in that language to practice it.In that time , 2-3 years of precious , formative years of the child's life when he develops language go wasted.The mother tongue of the family needs no time and as soon as the aids are put the mother can talk to the child under the guidance of a speech therapist to help the child to develop speech and language.Moreover in the last 40 years of her taking speech therapy classes, there is not a single mother who has come and told her that she would like her child to learn to sign.ALL mothers say just one thing, teach my child to talk, I want to hear his voice, I want him to call me " mummy".All the mothers are ready to do anything to hear their child talk. More over in my entire life ,had it not been for Prisha, I would not have met so many deaf people.How many people on the road and public places know sign language? Are we not limiting their world? They need to be with someone all time to help them decipher to other people what they want to communicate. Today if somebody asked me about it , I would never want her to sign.I love to hear her sing and speak.Had it not been for AVT , I would have been deprived of this pleasure.I would be afraid to leave her alone all by herself.Today she leads a very normal life like any other normal kid. There are normal kids who only have one language, deaf also can do with one language.If I go to south India, I manage with English, I don't learn the local language of all the places I visit. Once one language is learnt, the deaf too can pick up 2nd or 3rd language if they want. Prisha is picking up Hindi, thanks to this programme. There is difference between my normal son and her.There is a child in ma'am's class who has picked up 4 languages.The method is the same, teach the child to listen and speak. Once they learn to reproduce the sounds they hear, they can learn any language. So I really feel , in the early intervention programme, the child's best option is AVT. If diagnosed later than 10 years, then yes, sign language is a better option.
Monday, February 9, 2009
You be with me...
I have been explaining the concept about weddings to Prisha. We would come across a decorated car, or a woman dressed up as a bride or how mom and dad got together and pictures of weddings and I would mention to her a bit about it.The other day I was coming back from therapy and Prisha pointed out of the window and yelled out.."mummy, look somebody is getting married". I saw a car being decorated and talked about it.At night on TV we saw somebody getting married and we talked .I then mentioned that when your brother becomes big he too would marry and get a girl home.I went ahead and told her "you too will grow up and marry a nice boy".She thought for a while and asked me " would you miss me" . I said yes and told her that she should call me everyday from her new home. After a little silence, she threw her arms around me and said.."You stay with me!". I was taken aback when I saw her eyes where moist and her face was long.She said ..."you , daddy, rishabh and I will always live together". I hugged her tight as I know I always find it difficult to accept that one day she too would grow and get married leaving a huge vacuum in me.I always feel myself so complete after she came into my life.I do get lumps in my throat when I think of her big day, which is still years away.
She is quite a brat. I was worried sick about her ear pain and was applying the ointment in her ears and she was without the left hearing aid for 2 weeks. I would ask her after she came back from school if her ear was still paining and she would press her ear and say that yes it pained her right inside.I finalltook and appointment with the ENT doctor and he looked in and said her ear was absolutely CLEAR! I insisted on her ear pain and he said he could see the eardrum and there was not an iota of wax and the skin was ok. I realised she was fooling me! She was enjoying her ear without the aid.As her right ear has better hearing and she was managing well without it, she preffered her ear to be without it.I asked the doctor to tell her now wear the aids as the ear was fine.It works psycologically well when the doctor tells the kids.She now goes to school with both aids and THERE IS NO PAIN.......
She is quite a brat. I was worried sick about her ear pain and was applying the ointment in her ears and she was without the left hearing aid for 2 weeks. I would ask her after she came back from school if her ear was still paining and she would press her ear and say that yes it pained her right inside.I finalltook and appointment with the ENT doctor and he looked in and said her ear was absolutely CLEAR! I insisted on her ear pain and he said he could see the eardrum and there was not an iota of wax and the skin was ok. I realised she was fooling me! She was enjoying her ear without the aid.As her right ear has better hearing and she was managing well without it, she preffered her ear to be without it.I asked the doctor to tell her now wear the aids as the ear was fine.It works psycologically well when the doctor tells the kids.She now goes to school with both aids and THERE IS NO PAIN.......
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Its back
Prisha complained of earache last night again, and there in the morning I peeped into her ear and there was another white boil! Poor girl she is so brave and agreed to go to school with one aid.I am going to see my homeopath for something.
Yesterday she sang for her other friends in the therapy getting a lot of "wows" for her effort from the other mothers.She did inspire an older kid!
We had a lovely class with our speech therapist y'day.I will put it on the blog.We were told about a butterfly that was born in ma'am's garden and she told us the whole cycle of its birth much to the amazement of the kids.I told Prisha later that before she was born, she was in my tummy. The chick before its birth is in the egg etc.She promptly asked me " then where is Prisha's baby?" . I laughed and told her she would have one of her own when she grows.
Yesterday she sang for her other friends in the therapy getting a lot of "wows" for her effort from the other mothers.She did inspire an older kid!
We had a lovely class with our speech therapist y'day.I will put it on the blog.We were told about a butterfly that was born in ma'am's garden and she told us the whole cycle of its birth much to the amazement of the kids.I told Prisha later that before she was born, she was in my tummy. The chick before its birth is in the egg etc.She promptly asked me " then where is Prisha's baby?" . I laughed and told her she would have one of her own when she grows.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Pain in the ear
Prisha was complaining of ear pain for a couple of days and due to mental pressures I ignored it.The other day I put in ear drops to ease the pain and the next morning she was complaining of more pain.I peeped into her ear and saw a white point.I applied a little medicated ointment and put in the aid and let her go school.She returned in the afternoon and complained of ear pain again and it extended to her cheek and behind the ear.I got worried and the moment I pulled out the hearing aid, out came a thick mucus like white discharge with it.I was shocked and I cleaned it with the ear bud as my lil girl complained of immense pain.I was cursing myself for taking it lightly and was so scared that her ear drum should not be affected.The 4 hrs after that was a nightmare of sorts as that is when I could see my ENT specialist at the earliest.The fear of her hearing being affected was killing me as she said that in school she was hearing cooing sounds in the affected ear.
The doc examined her and to my partial relief her ear drum was all right. She had a huge boil in the canal and the whole skin inside was affected.A 3 day course of antibiotics along with medicated ointment to apply and no hearing aid for 3 days was prescribed.My brave girl sat through the whole procedure while he cleaned the ear as the boil had burst and was giving out lots of discharge followed by blood.It did give her a bit of relief from pain though.At school the teacher was informed the the response may be affected due to 1 hearing aid. Fortunately as the aid she was wearing was in the better ear we could manage most of the talking and hearing.I kept telling her that though she wore 1 aid she can hear well if she paid attention.It psychologically worked well too.
Today we went for a follow up and a scab has formed on wound and it has healed well.She could wear her aid.I was thrilled.The moment we reached home Prisha said to me.."My ear is not paining, I want my other hearing too".The happiness on her face was so pleasing to me.It just showed how she enjoys listening to sounds.She wore her aids and kept saying.."I hear loudly" jumping around the house.I am so thankful she is alright.I even tested her listening skills in the affected ear, to my relief all is well.I learnt not take ear pain lightly.
By the way Prisha made me proud in last speech therapy class.We were doing picture reading and she did all of them very well.Her 1st picture she said -"In the picture there is a monkey. The monkey is peeling banana", the next being good too.The 3 rd picture was complicated and needed more number of sentences to make it more clear.Ma'am broke the picture into 6 sentences and Prisha said all in order at the 1st go[ she missed out a couple of words here and the , that's ok] Yippee, we were all thrilled and ma'am was very happy too.She remembered the pattern well though I have not able to sit with her for over 6 weeks.Great going Prisha.
The doc examined her and to my partial relief her ear drum was all right. She had a huge boil in the canal and the whole skin inside was affected.A 3 day course of antibiotics along with medicated ointment to apply and no hearing aid for 3 days was prescribed.My brave girl sat through the whole procedure while he cleaned the ear as the boil had burst and was giving out lots of discharge followed by blood.It did give her a bit of relief from pain though.At school the teacher was informed the the response may be affected due to 1 hearing aid. Fortunately as the aid she was wearing was in the better ear we could manage most of the talking and hearing.I kept telling her that though she wore 1 aid she can hear well if she paid attention.It psychologically worked well too.
Today we went for a follow up and a scab has formed on wound and it has healed well.She could wear her aid.I was thrilled.The moment we reached home Prisha said to me.."My ear is not paining, I want my other hearing too".The happiness on her face was so pleasing to me.It just showed how she enjoys listening to sounds.She wore her aids and kept saying.."I hear loudly" jumping around the house.I am so thankful she is alright.I even tested her listening skills in the affected ear, to my relief all is well.I learnt not take ear pain lightly.
By the way Prisha made me proud in last speech therapy class.We were doing picture reading and she did all of them very well.Her 1st picture she said -"In the picture there is a monkey. The monkey is peeling banana", the next being good too.The 3 rd picture was complicated and needed more number of sentences to make it more clear.Ma'am broke the picture into 6 sentences and Prisha said all in order at the 1st go[ she missed out a couple of words here and the , that's ok] Yippee, we were all thrilled and ma'am was very happy too.She remembered the pattern well though I have not able to sit with her for over 6 weeks.Great going Prisha.
Monday, January 26, 2009
You are talking too much
I have noticed that since we keep talking around Prisha , she picks up these one liners that she hears and uses very appropriately.Like when she is talking on the phone , she gives the phone to me and says..' mummy, baat karo." meaning mummy talk here. I love the use of this kind of language that she is picking up and using it without being taught.This confirms my belief that when I teach her a verb, I say it first and then do the action so that she associates that word with action only after hearing it. She did a funny thing the other day.She was arguing with her grandfather for a long time and when the conversation became too much and she had enough of it she piped in..." you are talking too much.".Everybody was in splits at this use of prompt language.She drags her voice and is unclear when she talks in front of her grand parents as she knows she will getaway.When I am around she is open to correction and will listen to everything I say. In front of her speech therapist her speech is perfect.The intonation, the voice quality and her grammar is all in place as she wants to please her.How smart kids are!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Meeting an ex-student
Yesterday I met an ex-student of Mrs.Hudlikar who was one of her bright kids with good communication skills.He was married and come for therapy for his 10 month old deaf child who was diagnosed early and was wearing hearing aids and doing well .The man's mom had come with the entire family to re- learn what had to be taught to the child as the baby's mom was also deaf using sign language and the responsibility to develop the language laid with the grand mother.
During the session we gave out our feedback to the grand mother and we interacted with the family.All was well till the father of the child opened his mouth to speak.I was shocked as the man's language was so not at all clear and we all found it difficult to understand even one word. We all tried to strain and wondered how he was one of the good students. Ma'am was at him again and corrected his speech and was upset at the deterioration of his voice and speech. The man's parents then came out with the real story.The man was married to a deaf lady using the sign language. So for the woman adjustments were made so that she could open the door if the bell rang [ a light was attached to the door bell].There was a lot of writing that was used to make everybody understand.So to make the lady comfortable , the whole family made adjustments with the lady instead of helping her to react to sound and use her hearing aids to listen. The man has done his M Tech and works in a firm where during the interview when the interviewer tried to sign to him , he asked him to speak in English as he could speak. He also joined a deaf club against his parents wishes where most used signs and lip reading.With time the man stopped using his voice and started to depend on lip reading. As a result his voice quality and speech deteriorated.I was so shocked.Prisha too looked at the man with horror.It did give her a bit of fear.It is essential that the deaf person is surrounded with hearing people so that he does not get an opportunity to use any other mode except -speaking through hearing and hearing alone.As the man stopped started to focus on lip reading, he stopped focusing on listening and so stopped speaking. It did give me a big push that with Prisha I have to make sure that she is always in an environment where there is use of spoken language.
During the session we gave out our feedback to the grand mother and we interacted with the family.All was well till the father of the child opened his mouth to speak.I was shocked as the man's language was so not at all clear and we all found it difficult to understand even one word. We all tried to strain and wondered how he was one of the good students. Ma'am was at him again and corrected his speech and was upset at the deterioration of his voice and speech. The man's parents then came out with the real story.The man was married to a deaf lady using the sign language. So for the woman adjustments were made so that she could open the door if the bell rang [ a light was attached to the door bell].There was a lot of writing that was used to make everybody understand.So to make the lady comfortable , the whole family made adjustments with the lady instead of helping her to react to sound and use her hearing aids to listen. The man has done his M Tech and works in a firm where during the interview when the interviewer tried to sign to him , he asked him to speak in English as he could speak. He also joined a deaf club against his parents wishes where most used signs and lip reading.With time the man stopped using his voice and started to depend on lip reading. As a result his voice quality and speech deteriorated.I was so shocked.Prisha too looked at the man with horror.It did give her a bit of fear.It is essential that the deaf person is surrounded with hearing people so that he does not get an opportunity to use any other mode except -speaking through hearing and hearing alone.As the man stopped started to focus on lip reading, he stopped focusing on listening and so stopped speaking. It did give me a big push that with Prisha I have to make sure that she is always in an environment where there is use of spoken language.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Prisha is 5
Our 2009 speech therapy classes got delayed as Mrs.Hudlikar was down with a stomach infection .And at that age to recover and regain stamina to teach 50 HI children takes time.
Our 1st session of the year started with the concept of time.2008 has gone 2009 has come.She sat down with the calenders of the 2 years and then talked about how the old calender is of no use as the new year has come.The kids were asked to say the names of the months of the year.Well Prisha almost managed. Then we moved to the names of the days of the week. The teacher asked everybody for their birth days, I held my breathe as I had been talking about her approaching birthday. She said her date of birth and when asked about how old she would be, she proudly said 5! She looked at me for approval and we exchanged that look where she was happy to see my thumbs up look. Ma'am marked her birthday on the calender.
2 days later it was her birthday ie, 15th Jan. I packed up some popcorn, cake and sweets to give in therapy class.We got a surprise.Ma'am was celebrating her birthday. She laid out a beautiful table cloth embroidered by her ,and we laid out the goodies that she kept for the little party and I took out my stuff.A candle was lit and we sang happy birthday for Prisha.She was thrilled! A lil envelope with some money for Prisha was a precious gift from her.A very touching and memorable b'day for us.A good therapy lesson was taken where we talked about b'days.
Prisha was on a big high on her big day.This year she had been to b'day party and wanted 1 for herself too.She is realizing the fun and was on cloud 9 the entire day.I loved to see the zest for life in her.She told me what she wanted for her big day. we pulled out the entire wardrobe as she could not decide what to wear. She wanted balloons of all colours in all rooms, [to be blown by the same lady in a sari who had blown in her friend's house- but my dear prisha it was her neighbour who helped out] the cake, the chips the food, etc had to laid.She specified where the cake would be cut, how it would be served and how the presents had to be opened after everybody left.My God , I was trying to keep pace on my creaky knees and was falling off with all the running around.But it was all worth it to see her eyes light up at everything that I could do for her, which wasn't much.She makes me feel young and energetic.Her energy radiates on to me.I thanked God that she came into my life.She has given meaning to my otherwise ordinary life.The other day I told her that I need to do yoga so that I keep healthy and teach her to talk well.She looked up at me with a funny look in her eyes and hugged me so tight.I had tears....Her 5th birthday is the 1st birthday where she realized the importance of her birthdate.The day ended with all the fun , where her friends painted, ate well sang for her gifted her and gave a lovely memory for us remember.The hangover is still not over though.We look forward to the next one now.
Our 1st session of the year started with the concept of time.2008 has gone 2009 has come.She sat down with the calenders of the 2 years and then talked about how the old calender is of no use as the new year has come.The kids were asked to say the names of the months of the year.Well Prisha almost managed. Then we moved to the names of the days of the week. The teacher asked everybody for their birth days, I held my breathe as I had been talking about her approaching birthday. She said her date of birth and when asked about how old she would be, she proudly said 5! She looked at me for approval and we exchanged that look where she was happy to see my thumbs up look. Ma'am marked her birthday on the calender.
2 days later it was her birthday ie, 15th Jan. I packed up some popcorn, cake and sweets to give in therapy class.We got a surprise.Ma'am was celebrating her birthday. She laid out a beautiful table cloth embroidered by her ,and we laid out the goodies that she kept for the little party and I took out my stuff.A candle was lit and we sang happy birthday for Prisha.She was thrilled! A lil envelope with some money for Prisha was a precious gift from her.A very touching and memorable b'day for us.A good therapy lesson was taken where we talked about b'days.
Prisha was on a big high on her big day.This year she had been to b'day party and wanted 1 for herself too.She is realizing the fun and was on cloud 9 the entire day.I loved to see the zest for life in her.She told me what she wanted for her big day. we pulled out the entire wardrobe as she could not decide what to wear. She wanted balloons of all colours in all rooms, [to be blown by the same lady in a sari who had blown in her friend's house- but my dear prisha it was her neighbour who helped out] the cake, the chips the food, etc had to laid.She specified where the cake would be cut, how it would be served and how the presents had to be opened after everybody left.My God , I was trying to keep pace on my creaky knees and was falling off with all the running around.But it was all worth it to see her eyes light up at everything that I could do for her, which wasn't much.She makes me feel young and energetic.Her energy radiates on to me.I thanked God that she came into my life.She has given meaning to my otherwise ordinary life.The other day I told her that I need to do yoga so that I keep healthy and teach her to talk well.She looked up at me with a funny look in her eyes and hugged me so tight.I had tears....Her 5th birthday is the 1st birthday where she realized the importance of her birthdate.The day ended with all the fun , where her friends painted, ate well sang for her gifted her and gave a lovely memory for us remember.The hangover is still not over though.We look forward to the next one now.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A summary of last 6 weeks
I have not been able to sit on my blog last 6 weeks as 1st the Mumbai attacks took hold of my emotions and I was literally grieving and the depression took toll on my own personal work.My husband and relatives turned up and we had a lot of catching up.I asked all of them about how they felt had Prisha progressed in the time they had not seen her.The answers were encouraging.Her comprehension is great and things don't need to be repeated to her.She comes across as a normal kid.
Since she was the centre of attraction everybody wanted to teach her what they were good at.My husband's sister tried to tell stories and did some maths, my co-sister did a bit of her artwork and igniting her creative mind, my husband tried to pamper her and her grand parents gave in to her fancies. I took a back seat and after a month I am realising she has regressed in speech.She needs me to break down sentences which she echoed earlier without much ado.Yesterday in her speech therapy class she was shivering while answering as she was not confident and also since she is weak from her stomach infection.
But I would like to high light the things she has done in the past 1 month.She is aware that singing is not something she is confident about , yet she breaks into " we shall overcome", " God's love", "lakdi ki kathi"- a hindi song and does sing " Raghupathi Raghav Raja Ram" - Lord Ram's song.It is satisfying to hear her normal voice.When i teach her to say something new she juts out her lower jaw as she finds it convenient . I correct her immediately.
She does play school .I think all girls love it.She does become Manisha ma'am, her class teacher, and her grand pa is the student. there is attendance, colouring class, singing class, English class etc and he needs to be very attentive and has to follow or she gives him a dressing down.During the attendance she calls out her grandmom's name but is normally marked absent as she feels she does not cooperate .It is something to really experience and she does want me to go away as she feels I will correct her and she can't be her real self. We took a short holiday and she enjoyed the stay in a resort. she modelled for photographs and had her speech practice where ever we went.My sister's daughter has down's and so has problem with speech. I tried to do my bit of work to encourage speech and Prisha was most cooperative. The moment I left she would then take over and tell Kitu to copy her. She copies the same style. When she plays teacher , I know how her teacher talks, when she does speech therapy with Kitu , I feels it is a mirror image of me talking.With Kitu and a friend's daughter who is 9 ( with a bad job of CI) their voice quality is something I am always concerned about.I tried to sing ( aa...) in different pitches and with a little work and encouragement I was able to achieve it, much to my delight.I have worked it with Prisha from the beginning and so Prisha's intonation and voice modulation is great. I have taught the tricks to their mums, hope they carry it further. In the speech therapy class their is a boy 8 years old, bright guys but his voice is flat. I taught the trick to the mum and after a month she told me that after much encouragement from both of us, he was for the 1st time trying to sing along a cartoon theme song! Yipee!!!!I was thrilled. The kids may not turn singers but why deprive them of another part of speech!
Since she was the centre of attraction everybody wanted to teach her what they were good at.My husband's sister tried to tell stories and did some maths, my co-sister did a bit of her artwork and igniting her creative mind, my husband tried to pamper her and her grand parents gave in to her fancies. I took a back seat and after a month I am realising she has regressed in speech.She needs me to break down sentences which she echoed earlier without much ado.Yesterday in her speech therapy class she was shivering while answering as she was not confident and also since she is weak from her stomach infection.
But I would like to high light the things she has done in the past 1 month.She is aware that singing is not something she is confident about , yet she breaks into " we shall overcome", " God's love", "lakdi ki kathi"- a hindi song and does sing " Raghupathi Raghav Raja Ram" - Lord Ram's song.It is satisfying to hear her normal voice.When i teach her to say something new she juts out her lower jaw as she finds it convenient . I correct her immediately.
She does play school .I think all girls love it.She does become Manisha ma'am, her class teacher, and her grand pa is the student. there is attendance, colouring class, singing class, English class etc and he needs to be very attentive and has to follow or she gives him a dressing down.During the attendance she calls out her grandmom's name but is normally marked absent as she feels she does not cooperate .It is something to really experience and she does want me to go away as she feels I will correct her and she can't be her real self. We took a short holiday and she enjoyed the stay in a resort. she modelled for photographs and had her speech practice where ever we went.My sister's daughter has down's and so has problem with speech. I tried to do my bit of work to encourage speech and Prisha was most cooperative. The moment I left she would then take over and tell Kitu to copy her. She copies the same style. When she plays teacher , I know how her teacher talks, when she does speech therapy with Kitu , I feels it is a mirror image of me talking.With Kitu and a friend's daughter who is 9 ( with a bad job of CI) their voice quality is something I am always concerned about.I tried to sing ( aa...) in different pitches and with a little work and encouragement I was able to achieve it, much to my delight.I have worked it with Prisha from the beginning and so Prisha's intonation and voice modulation is great. I have taught the tricks to their mums, hope they carry it further. In the speech therapy class their is a boy 8 years old, bright guys but his voice is flat. I taught the trick to the mum and after a month she told me that after much encouragement from both of us, he was for the 1st time trying to sing along a cartoon theme song! Yipee!!!!I was thrilled. The kids may not turn singers but why deprive them of another part of speech!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Meeting Priya
Yesterday I finally met Priya who is now 21 yrs or so running her own bakery from home.I had ordered some brown bread and buns.She arrived in a hurry , she spoke so normally and as she has recruitment [I hope the spelling is correct] where she is unable to wear the hearing aid as the sound is unbearable in that ear.She was , I think , a bit conscious as the class was on.We did the calculations and I paid up.I was disappinted as I was not able to meet her mom.Her mom was the one who introduced us to ma'am and changed our lives forever.So when she told me that she was in the car, I ran to meet her.I had got her a bunch of flowers , I hugged her and thanked her for what she did for us. I was meeting her after 4 years as I got busy with Prisha and never got a chance to meet her.It was an emotional moment for me.Thanks to her today with the correct speech therapy we lead normal lives.
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