Turning the Tables

  Each week, E spends an hour with a therapist to work on his listening skills and communication with his hearing aids and in preparation for his CIs. One of the skills consists of us making a series of sounds and E responding if he heard them by placing a ball into a toy. In an effort to make sure he was really responding to the sound and not to the visual, the therapist would cover her mouth and make the noise. E suddenly started covering his mouth and making the same noise. Next, E turned the tables and wanted to be the one making the sound. He then wanted his daddy and the therapist to be his students and place the ball when he made his sound.
 
  Another exercise is for us to be able to ask E to identify images when we ask for them by sign and sound. In the bathtub, we have foam flash cards. We would float the cards and ask E to give us this or that. When he found the one we requested, we would clap and reward him with a tickle. Last night, E spread his cards out in the water then swirled his finger above them. He looked at me expectantly and signed for me to "find the crab." When I realized what he was doing, I picked up the picture of the crab and stuck it to the tile. He signed "crab" then clapped for me :-) My husband and I laughed so hard while E insisted we be his students again and again. The student has become the teacher!

  In preparation for E's surgery, we have been purchasing button-up or zip front shirts. After the surgery, it will be a few days before we will be able to comfortably put anything over his head. The most difficult to find were pajamas that didn't have to slip over the head. The zip footie pajamas are not acceptable to E anymore. They are made to fit closely to the body and E seems to feel too constrained in them. We finally had success when we found some pajama sets that I call the "old man style." They are so super cute on E and they seem to do the trick without making him feel trapped. We gave them a test run. Here are the results of a good night's sleep in his new jammies: