Monday, March 21, 2011

Another deaf athlete with a CI

This is a neat story about a high school football player (in Columbus, OH, family members!) who has a specially designed helmet to accommodate his CI.  I'm a little iffy about a kid with a CI playing a heavy-duty contact sport, since a blow to the head carries all the usual risk plus the additional risk of damage to the device, but it's nice to know that it's an option.

In other sports news, Ben went skiing last week -- twice!  I'm at the office right now, but I'll try to post a picture tonight.  He doesn't yet have the musculature (or the incentive) to hold himself up very well, so Neil ended up with a sore back from supporting him all the way down the hill.  But it was a very successful first exposure.  By next winter, Ben will probably be ready to do more on his own.  In any case, he had a blast!

Speaking of helmets, we'll have to figure something out for skiing.  Lots of CI kids ski, and the helmet fits pretty well over the equipment, especially if you wear one of these underneath to keep the headpiece from shifting out of position.  Since Ben was completely under Neil's physical control the entire time, we didn't bother with a helmet this year.

Oh, and it turns out that Ben's an opera fan.  More on that another time.

2 comments:

leah said...

Way to go on the skiing! Do you own skis for Ben, or did you take him to ski school? Holiday Valley has a really nice "Wee Ski" program for 3 year olds. I wasn't sure how Nolan would do (mild hypotonia), but he did great on the skis - it took him a lot of effort to walk in them, though, so he tired out very quickly. Hearing aids are much smaller, so we didn't have any problems with the ski helmet and aids... I hope you find a solution for the CI coil!

Unknown said...

Glad to see Ben enjoys skiing and the opera! I did ski club when I was in middle school, and it was fun even though it was also utterly terrifying most of the time. I hope you can find him a hat to wear under his helmet with a less objectionable logo...love you, Neil! ;)