There are these things called Ling sounds. They are a set of 7 sounds that make up the building blocks of all speech. They cover all the frequencies at which English speech sounds are made, things like 's', 'sh', 'm', 'ee', 'or', 'oo' & 'ah'. They were categorised by a guy named David Ling...hence the name, Ling sounds. Cool, huh?
Every week at speech, Jarrah is tested with the Ling sounds, to see if and how well he's detecting each sound, and potentially copying it, making the sound himself. During and for a while after his "episode" he had not been detecting them too well, getting the easy ones, but not even detecting some that, according to his audiograms which i don't believe, were outside his range of hearing. One morning in late May, before testing the Ling sounds at speech, his teacher began to make her cochlear implant noises. She had previously said that he was obviously getting good access to sound with just his hearing aid at this stage, and that we shouldn't need to think about implant until perhaps he gets to school, if the noisy learning environment is too challenging. Because of his sudden lack of progress during the episode, she was now wondering if we shouldn't take him and at least get him assessed to see if he's really a candidate, and think about doing something sooner rather than later.
Well, she picked the wrong time to say that! That morning, Jarrah detected and copied every Ling sound, even ones he had previously not got at all, even the dreaded 'ee' sound!! It just seemed like he had switched on all of a sudden...as if all the set-back he had suffered during the episode suddenly didn't matter, there was progress to be made. What a relief, in some ways, yet at the same time deepening the mystery that is our son and his hearing...
In June, Jarrah turned 2 years old. So much has happened in those 2 years...yes, all the normal developmental stuff, but the journey through hearing loss over these 2 years has been...well...lots of things. Sometimes it's been easy, other times hard, it's been fun and not-fun, educational, depressing, enriching, frustrating, exciting, confusing, surprising, baffling...often all in one day :-) It's made me really question the goodness of God, but it's also brought me closer to a point of accepting that everything happens for a purpose, and that He will bring good out of what is otherwise a bad situation. I can see now that Jarrah will function just fine in a speaking world, even though these early years are going to be a lot of work. Because his hearing appears to fluctuate on a daily basis, i've had to learn (and am still learning) to "read" him each day to assess how much to expect of him, and how strict i can realistically be with him that day.
Our 2nd baby is due on July 7th, and a few months ago i really wondered how on earth i was going to manage a newborn with a hearing impaired child. Jarrah was so unresponsive and understood so little of what i said to him that i really was very apprehensive about what the immediate future held. Thankfully, as my due date has approached, Jarrah has come ahead in leaps and bounds, to the point where by our last speech lesson for Term 2 in late June i thought, "OK, i think i can manage this!" He actually turns to me when i call his name, he usually comes when i call him, and, using a combination of speech and sign, i can make myself understood a large percentage of the time. Jarrah's own vocabulary, both spoken & signed, is increasing almost daily, which of course makes it much easier for me to know what he needs...and wants :-)
July is going to be busy - baby due around the 7th, then our next Australian Hearing check-up on the 18th, plus a bunch of other things going on. After the Aus Hearing appt we'll need to go back to our ENT to check on the grommets and see if anything needs doing in that department...ho-hum...
The one thing I would really like is for this next baby to be a hearing child. While i won't be devastated if they do have a hearing loss, i would like not to have to do all this again. Admittedly, we now have a great team of professionals around us, from ENT's to chiro's to audiologists...but it would be nice, almost novel, to have a child to whom i can speak normally, who jumps at loud things, and with whom i can sign for fun, not for survival... Please, Lord, can i have a hearing child?
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