Jarrah - that boy is full of surprises!

Thurs 11th June - Jarrah's Australian Hearing checkup

This was due to be just a regular 6-monthly checkup...but of course, we can never tell what Jarrah's going to do! I was unable to take Jarrah to this appointment due to my music teaching, so Keith got to have his first visit to Australian Hearing.

Because Jarrah was nearly 3, they used Play Audiometry instead of the VROA (Puppet test). Play Audiometry is very similar to what we do at Speech every week with the Ling Sounds - Jarrah has to actively listen, then performs an action or repeats the sound when he hears something - so he was already quite familiar with the task. He'd only had 30mins sleep at Kindy, so I must confess i was a bit apprehensive about his state of mind...

Well, Keith came home with some interesting news...Jarrah's levels appear to have improved!! How is this possible? I don't know, but i've got an audiogram to prove it! :-)

Lower and middle frequencies appear to remain unchanged, but the higher frequencies (2kHz & 4kHz) appear to have improved by up to 20db! Instead of the higher frequencies tapering off towards the severe/profound end of the scale (80-100db), they pull back up towards normal hearing thresholds (40-50db)...very odd, considering 12 months ago we were still wondering if Jarrah was a cochlear implant candidate!

Jarrah's language has kicked up a new level recently. Since receiving his new Giraffe hearing aids (Phonak Naida V's), we've noticed that all his words have been getting clearer, and in the last 2-3 weeks there's been an added level of complexity that hasn't been there before. He's started using strings of words together, 2 & 3 or more at a time; he's started initiating conversation, stating something that happened or that he feels; he's using 'yes' & 'no' appropriately (finally!!); he's begun using quantifiers - 'lots of', 'very very', etc. It's hard to know how much of this is attributable to the Naida's and how much is developmental, but it's wonderful to hear him gaining more understanding about his world and life.

Jarrah turned 3 today, and by dinnertime tonight he really knew it was his birthday - i didn't count how many times he sang Happy Birthday during dinner! :-) We had treat breakfast (McDonald's), went to swimming lessons (where Jarrah was put up to a new class!), then came home and prepared for a small party. We just had grandparents and J's best friend and his family over for morning tea, but it was nice. This is really the first year that J has understood the idea of it being his birthday, so it was fun to see him again discovering something new.

Let's see if i can upload the latest audiogram for your viewing pleasure! :-)