Making Progress

This week at therapy we did a formal assessment of Henry’s speech, language and development. The “development” aspects are interesting- there are many aspects of a child’s development which are dependent, at least in part, on hearing, which are not immediately obvious. For example, an early aspect of cognitive development is the concept of object permanence- the idea that an object is still present even though you can’t see it. This is easier for a hearing baby to learn because they are exposed from birth to situations which assist in understanding and learning this- such as their mother talking when they can’t see her. Another aspect is social development. Things like saying hello and goodbye – this is a baby’s first experience in participating in social interactions. It makes them feel part of the family, the group, and engaged with everyone. It is difficult for a deaf child to pick up on the social cues that allow participation in something so simple as hello and goodbye. A knock at the door goes completely missed. Talk about ‘saying goodbye’ does too. Waving must appear completely unexpected and random.
Hearing is such an important sense that it can delay so many aspects of development that are so important for a child.
We first did the assessment at RIDBC when Henry was six months old and had been wearing hearing aids for nearly three months. Having been initially diagnosed with a moderate-severe hearing loss, he should have been responding well to his hearing aids, but I never felt they helped at all (and I’m still not sure if the initial diagnosis was wrong, or his hearing just degenerated quickly after the test). Anyway, Melissa had the assessment that we did in August last year with her this week. At six months of age, Henry was assessed at 0-3 months in development and did not even make the chart in speech and language (ie. he was not even at 0-3 month level). Interesting, Melissa did not tell me that at the time- I think that would have been a bit disheartening!
This week we did the assessment again. Henry has only been hearing for three weeks, so we couldn’t expect too much. He was roughly assessed at around 6 months developmentally and 0-3 months in hearing and speech. I have to focus on the positives. The fact that Henry, at almost one year old, has a hearing and speech perception and understanding of a newborn baby is something to be celebrated, because he is actually on the way now. If we hadn’t ‘addressed’ the problem , then it would be hard, but I have no doubt that Henry is extremely smart and we will start to ‘catch up’ really quickly now that Henry can actually hear. And I can see Henry learning and developing so quickly in front of my eyes. He is making sounds and babbling. You know how babies babble? I actually had forgotten that. But as Henry does things now, I think, oh yeah, that’s what babies are supposed to do. My Henry who has pretty much been silent for 12 months (what is the point making noise if you can’t hear it??). He is still on vowels sounds, and we are eagerly awaiting something more, as this will be really important (things like ma ma, and ba ba...), but we will get there, soon I’m sure. Can’t wait!!!!