Tuesday 28th July 2015
After months of waiting, Princess finally got a music therapy place and started last week - we love it! Music has always been an important part of my life, I love listening to it, I love playing it, I love singing (though I'm not that good at it).
After diagnosis, a huge part of my sadness, was the thought that my little Princess might never be able to appreciate music, participate in it or associate it with magical moments in her life.
The miracle of cochlear implants, seems to be producing wonderful results for her - most recent audiological testing shows that she may be hearing around 30-40dB, meaning that she can now hear most sounds and speech! We really noticed this recently up one returning from holidays: Princess, her brothers, father and myself were in the living room, TV on, brothers being noisy, hubby & I chatting and Princess playing with toys. All doors were open and the radio was playing outside in the car in the driveway, when suddenly Princess noticed the music and started signing & dancing to tell us - she was really happy to hear it and we both had a little tear in our eyes. It was amazing to see her pick a distant noise over all that was going in around her and correctly identify it - definitely a milestone for me.
Today, again, another "little emotional moment" for me.
During her music therapy session, we were using the "water drum" which sounds like waves crashing on the beach. Princess was loving the noise & really enjoying watching the beads inside the drum moving above her head, then the therapist started making really loud wave sounds and abruptly stopping them to create silence. Princess noticed! This was the first time she has shown a reaction to a noise/sound stopping - huge progress. Many times we have seen reactions to sounds starting, but never to stops or silences. Of course, in addition to this, I had another little tear when I watched her playing the drum and dancing to her therapist singing - just so cute & beautiful!
Princess continues to be very verbal and making loads of noise & babble, no words yet, but definite changes in volume, pitch, tone, speed and emotion, which hopefully means she is able to hear those things, leading to her replicating them in her own communications. It's lovely to hear her finding her voice and very consciously using it to communicate.
On the BSL front, I have finally had notification that I have passed my Level 1 course and am a good few months into my Level 2 course and am very pleased to report that Princess is signing new signs every day - today we had lots of signing about rain since our summer weather has been so awful!
Whilst, I am not going to pretend all this is easy, it's not, it's hard work - I'm constantly thinking about the acoustic environment we are in wondering what Princess can hear, checking her implants, trying to sign as much as I can, trying to introduce new sounds & words - we are constantly grateful for this amazing technology and the opportunities it has given our daughter and our family.
We continue to learn sign language and allow Princess to have time both with and without implants so that she is comfortable in both the Deaf and Hearing worlds and so far, everything seems to be going very well.
Well, that's you basically updated, hopefully the next one won't be so long in coming. Hope you enjoyed reading, please feel free to share to anyone who could benefit.
Goodnight xx
