It's amazing what deaf kids can do...

Jarrah was hearing exceptionally well today. He wore both hearing aids yesterday, but today he seemed to be doing well without them so we got a bit lazy and didn't put them in...and he still said new words that we hadn't heard before, like "hot", and "squirrel", and "weasel". With no hearing aids. And they actually sounded something like the word. Go figure.

The Aus Hearing audiologists were amazed some time ago, when we discussed what sort of toys Jarrah enjoys, that he loves musical instruments. Considering his test results, they were surprised he was getting any benefit from them at all, but he truly loves banging on the piano 

(singing along, of course!), or pretending to play a violin with two pencils (correct hands most of the time), or drumming with two pencils (Mummy's favourite...not!), or whacking his toy glockenspiel. He sings many different songs, often spontaneously, and has recently fallen in love with the stereo - it's often the first thing he turns on in the morning (except when Mummy & Daddy object at 6am!!), and then sits right in front of it and listens intently for a few minutes before finding something else to do.

For his 2nd birthday, we bought him a little ukulele, cos he loves watching me play guitar and always wants a turn. Yesterday I got out my violin (for the first time in quite a while :-s) and so he went and got his uke to play along :-) Today, just before dinner, Daddy and the two boys were playing downstairs and I went down to tell them dinner was ready, just in time to see Jarrah bringing his uke out to where Daddy & Kaelen were. It was clear he wanted to play, so i got him to sit down and he proceeded to serenade Kaelen, strumming most gently and singing away...

Then, he decided it was Kaelen's turn to play the uke...

Very cute, what a considerate boy we have! And all this still without hearing aids!

It's amazing what deaf kids can do...