Audiology Appointment

Ben had his three month audiology appointment yesterday and they put him in the booth with his implant on to see how well he is hearing. They distract Ben with toys and present speech/environmental noises in different decibel levels from a speaker. Once he turns to the speaker for the sound, they light up a toy that sits on top of the speaker as a reward. The kids have to consistently turn to the noise four or five times to be considered as definitely hearing it, not just coincidence. And since Ben LOVES light up toys, he does great in the booth (if only I wore a hat that I could light up when I call him and he looks, he might respond to me talking a little better).

Ben's pre-implant hearing level was 80-90 decibels (right on the border of severe hearing loss and profound loss). This time, Ben was consistently turning to speech sounds at 15 decibels (which is like a whisper). It was amazing and I still can't believe how successful he has been with his implant. Ben never has success with his surgeries. If there is a 1% risk of failure, Ben will fall into that category - so this is why we are so truly shocked, thrilled and in awe of his implant success.

Right now, we are working on Ben learning the names of things (daddy, mommy, cow, dog, toy, etc.) and respond to them with the verbal cue, not the sign or visual cue. We are just so proud of our little guy. If only we could keep his implant on for longer periods of time (he's still pulling it off and when he rolls it still falls off - and he spends 75% of his day rolling).