Last night my husband & I where privileged enough to hear 4 previous students of Savannahs deaf school speak about their life living with their hearing impairment.
I don't know what i truly expected from all of this, but i have come home with more confidence & so much more Hope for Savannah.
Of course i had hope before, but i really had not experienced hearing impairment with kids older than 2, so how could i truly understand what it was going to be like.
This was an eye opening experience for me & One i keep with me for the future.
Four Students spoke 2 girls & 2 boys all different ages & all different hearing losses.
They had all achieved an AMAZING amount in their life & all where well adjusted & Happy kids.
The only learning barrier they all say they had avoided was learning a different language. Which would be hard when your being challenged to hear your own language daily.
One Girl she was 19 had bi-lat Mod/Sev loss & wore hearing aides & was currently in University studying. The other girl 16 had bi-lat CI's & was in high school doing amazing. One of the boys nick was 18 & in his last year of high school & doing amazing in sports he had a CI & wore a hearing aid. Then last but not least the boy that amazed me & truly left an impression on me. He was 13, had a CI & didn't wear a hearing aid in his sev/profound ear by choice. He was simply AMAZING! was a competitive swimming champ & was very into sports programs. He in my husband & my view spoke the best. Not one fault in his vocabulary or speech & if i didn't know he was deaf i wouldn't have given it a second glance.
I noticed from that night the older they where the more they didn't speak that well. Maybe this comes from being almost 20 years ago & not having the technology we do today?
I wonder if they had the same hearing aides as Savannah does now? Yes they went to her deaf school but technology was most likely nowhere near what it is today.
I also came out with much more understanding of how the CI works & how we may need to give Savannah this option not too far down the road. The two boys with the CI both had hearing aides with their sev/prof loss untill they where 2 years old. Their loss carried them that far & then they needed the implant.
All this imformation was what we needed to hear & what we need to witness from those that have been there. We have been tossing the idea of the implant for Savannah for a long time now, but have never wanted to truly say yes or no.
Now we have made the decision that we will carry Savannah as far as she can go with her hearing aides as long or as short as that may be & then when needed we will not hesitate to get her the CI.
I just feel very overall satisfied at where we are right now with Savannah & truly believe whatever lies ahead for our little girl was meant to be.
I don't know what i truly expected from all of this, but i have come home with more confidence & so much more Hope for Savannah.
Of course i had hope before, but i really had not experienced hearing impairment with kids older than 2, so how could i truly understand what it was going to be like.
This was an eye opening experience for me & One i keep with me for the future.
Four Students spoke 2 girls & 2 boys all different ages & all different hearing losses.
They had all achieved an AMAZING amount in their life & all where well adjusted & Happy kids.
The only learning barrier they all say they had avoided was learning a different language. Which would be hard when your being challenged to hear your own language daily.
One Girl she was 19 had bi-lat Mod/Sev loss & wore hearing aides & was currently in University studying. The other girl 16 had bi-lat CI's & was in high school doing amazing. One of the boys nick was 18 & in his last year of high school & doing amazing in sports he had a CI & wore a hearing aid. Then last but not least the boy that amazed me & truly left an impression on me. He was 13, had a CI & didn't wear a hearing aid in his sev/profound ear by choice. He was simply AMAZING! was a competitive swimming champ & was very into sports programs. He in my husband & my view spoke the best. Not one fault in his vocabulary or speech & if i didn't know he was deaf i wouldn't have given it a second glance.
I noticed from that night the older they where the more they didn't speak that well. Maybe this comes from being almost 20 years ago & not having the technology we do today?
I wonder if they had the same hearing aides as Savannah does now? Yes they went to her deaf school but technology was most likely nowhere near what it is today.
I also came out with much more understanding of how the CI works & how we may need to give Savannah this option not too far down the road. The two boys with the CI both had hearing aides with their sev/prof loss untill they where 2 years old. Their loss carried them that far & then they needed the implant.
All this imformation was what we needed to hear & what we need to witness from those that have been there. We have been tossing the idea of the implant for Savannah for a long time now, but have never wanted to truly say yes or no.
Now we have made the decision that we will carry Savannah as far as she can go with her hearing aides as long or as short as that may be & then when needed we will not hesitate to get her the CI.
I just feel very overall satisfied at where we are right now with Savannah & truly believe whatever lies ahead for our little girl was meant to be.
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