Kaelen's first speech "lesson"

What do you do with a nearly-9wk-old baby in a speech "lesson"?

Good question, actually. Think of it not so much as a lesson for the baby, but a lesson for Mum. Children with hearing losses often don't naturally tune in to environmental sounds the way hearing kids do, so the first thing they usually need is to be taught to listen. That seems very strange to those of us with normal hearing, we just assume that everyone can listen - as i sit here typing i notice that Kaelen has stopped crying and is hopefully going to sleep, i can hear various birds outside, and the occasional passing truck on the main road, and although none of these sounds are in my immediate listening space i still notice that they're there. Hearing impaired children may not hear those detailed sounds that i hear, and therefore what they do hear becomes just a blur of noise - at least, that's my interpretation. Teaching them to listen involves helping them to acknowledge when they do hear something, encouraging them to notice what they hear, and respond to it in some way.

So today was about making sounds and seeing Kaelen's response when he did hear something. It was interesting actually, very educational for me, it was good to see him respond to sound in that controlled environment because now i know what to look for at home to show that he's heard something - his eyes widen, or he frowns, or smiles, or looks to me for confirmation / assurance. He's definitely hearing things, so we can begin to use the "learning to listen" sounds with various objects to help him tune in to these things - animal sounds, transport sounds (cars, planes, trains, etc.) - and of course i have an expert helper in Jarrah, who i'm sure will be more than happy to make lots of these sounds for Kaelen! :-)

Amazingly, Kaelen was awake for the whole session (which is only short at this stage but will get longer as he gets older), and only started to get tired right at the end. He liked the cow, especially when i wiggled it quickly, that drew some smiles! We actually got little chuckles at home on Sunday which was very cute, so he's clearly trying to communicate, and responding to us.

Yet to hear from Australian Hearing, but i'm sure they'll get to us in the fullness of time...