Not a particularly good day....

We're having CI Issues.  Not too major, and hopefully they'll be resolved soon, but it's still stressful and a hassle.  The short version is that it looks like there's a problem with his headpiece (or "coil", for you Cochlear users out there), although the diagnosis is not conclusive.  The good folks at Advanced Bionics are going to call again in the morning to see if there is any news on the symptoms, and then probably just send us a new headpiece by overnight mail.

One consequence is that the poor guy had to spend the morning without his CI.  He does very well with just the hearing aid, and it was amazing and encouraging to see much he could hear and understand.  But it was clearly disorienting for him, and he kept fussing, "I want my headpiece!  I want my headpiece now!"  After said headpiece spent a few hours in the Dry&Store, we tried it again to see if that fixed the problem, but alas, it did not.  However, Ben reported that everything sounded fine to him, and so we went ahead and let him wear it for the rest of the day.  It wasn't clear how well he was actually hearing with it, and in any event the indicator light was still flashing red all day, so there's something wrong.  I'll share the ending of this story once I know it myself.

Speech and Language Assessment

Ben just had a formal speech and language assessment, as preparation for determining special education eligibility.  Wow.  The SLP who administered it is not Ben's speech therapist, and in fact she had never met him before.  In both receptive and expressive language, he was testing at the 4.5 year age range, and at that point she would stop testing him and move on to the next category so that he wouldn't fatigue too early.  She also assessed his articulation, and noted the same fronting and consonant substitution errors that his regular speech therapist has been working on with him, but also that he was highly intelligible.  Despite all of the very long, exhausting tests, Ben stayed focussed and even had a lot of fun with it.  Whatta guy.

At one point, the SLP pointed to a hand-drawn picture of a baby and asked, "What is this, Ben?"  Ben studied it for a long time, and I was beginning to think that he didn't understand what he was supposed to do.  And then he responded, his voice heavy with doubt, "Well, it's supposed to be a baby."  Everyone's a critic!

I'm looking forward to reading the report, which she'll send us in a week or so.

Tips for improving Auditory Working Memory

Rouchi had a link to this post, which has tons of fantastic tips for improving auditory working memory (AWM).  A lot of it comes down to what educators commonly call "chunking," i.e. breaking complex ideas or tasks into small pieces that are more easily processed and remembered (like the way we customarily break SS numbers into three small chunks).  You can help a child improve AWM by gradually increasing the number, length, and complexity of the chunks.

Gonna Rock Down to Spadina Avenue

We just (well, two days ago) got back from a quick jaunt to Toronto to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary.  In our pre-Ben days, Neil and I were in the habit of taking a little trip each year for our anniversary, but we took a little hiatus from that in Ben's early years.  This year we decided to take it up again, and we all had a great time.  We drove up after lunch on Saturday, got checked into the hotel in the late afternoon, and then hung out for a little before heading out for a nice Indian meal.  We spent much of Sunday down at Harborfront Center (sorry -- "Harbourfront Centre") enjoying a kid-oriented circus festival.  After nap, we took a very nice walk along College Street, meandering in and out of the U Toronto campus, and we ended up in Little Italy for dinner.  On Monday morning we went to the Royal Ontario Museum, which was great.  Ben was all primed to see dinosaurs, although he seemed a little disappointed that they only had skeletons on display, sans flesh, very unlike the colorful and talkative dinosaurs on Dinosaur Train.  He really enjoyed the display of minerals and rocks, and we got him some more rocks for his rock collection in the gift store.  He also had a great time "digging" for dinosaur bones using a wide paintbrush in a sandbox.  His Aunt Kathy will be proud.

The only serious trauma was trying to change his diaper in the restroom at the ROM.  He's had this thing for a few months now where he just freaks out when we change his diaper in a public restroom.  As soon as I try to lay him down, he siezes up with fear, red and shaking, and screams his lungs out.  It doesn't seem to be a behavior problem, or an attempt at manipulation; it's genuine terror.  And it's terribly inconvenient and embarrassing.  I'm usually able to distract and calm him with a story or song, but this time nothing worked.  As far as we can tell, he's afraid he's going to fall off -- never mind the fact that at home, on his own changing pad, he rolls and flips around like a fearless acrobat, so that we have to stay within arm's reach the entire time.  Anyway, there he was, beet-red and screaming bloody murder, and we're about to leave and get in the car and drive four hours home, so it's now or never for the diaper.  I tried everything -- distraction, talk-therapy, bribery, you name it -- and it was no go.  So I finally just plowed ahead, changed the darned thing, and tried to ignore all the people staring at me as if I were either a monster or the most incompetent parent they'd ever seen.  Oh, well -- can't win 'em all.

Happy Belated Flower Day and Mutlu YIllar!

Yesterday was special for at least two reasons.  For one, it was our first annual Flower Day.  Ben came up with this.  I was wearing a very old comfy tee shirt that my friend Carolyn got me umpteen billion years ago.  It used to have little fabric flowers that Carolyn had hand-stitched around the collar, very cute.  But they had fallen off one by one over the course of many years of laundry, and now only one lone flower remains, in the front and slightly off-center.  Ben looks at this and announces, "It's Flower Day!"  He went on to explain that on Flower Day, people give hugs, kisses, and back rubs, and this was followed by a quick demonstration.  All of this was entirely of his own invention.  Neil and I were practically dripping with delight.  We all engaged in the mandated rituals frequently throughout the remainder of the day.

Secondly, it was Fethiye's birthday.  Mutlu YIllar and much love, friend!

Another little tidbit from last week:  Ben at dinner said, "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo fell into the well!"  He got it all out perfectly the first time.  When he tried to say it again, he stumbled a bit, but still you gotta be impressed.  Ironically enough, he couldn't remember the name of Tikki Tikki's brother.

Serious Ukelele Riffs

Ben's Grampy and Cousin Megan recently made (yes, made) a beautiful ukelele for him.  He needed one.  Seriously -- he was turning everything into a guitar -- hair brushes, sticks, air.  He had played with a ukelele at a friend's house, and it was a perfect fit for him.  In a related development, we got him a new pair of sunglasses, since he had outgrown his old ones.  These developments are related as follows:

Here he is, performing for his legions of stuffed animal fans, and rocking out beautifully.  He also does a good Stevie Wonder impression at his "piano" (Thomas box; he does have a real piano at his disposal as well).  And the pose vaguely reminiscent of The Bangles "Walk Like an Egyptian" is actually his version of the PBS SteveSong about rockets in which Mr. Steve periodically sets his guitar aside to "blast off".

February and March

Here are Ben's calendars from February and March:

Toilet Training continues to be a central theme in our lives these days.  We still have to straighten out a few kinks in our system.  We've been doing "low-key" toilet training since last fall, meaning that we sit on the potty every night before bathtime, read a few books, and see what happens, but we've made no attempt yet to graduate from diapers.  And this was fine for awhile -- Ben enjoyed it, especially when he was successful and got to put a sticker on the potty, and everything was mellow and positive.  But he's starting to feel more and more performance anxiety, and Neil and I are engaged in a little research and strategizing right now, trying to come up with new tactics before anxiety turns to avoidance.  Fortunately our daycare provider is an expert at these things, and has managed to make considerable progress during daycare hours, but we're really starting to feel like we're spinning our wheels at home.  Anyway, you can see a reference on February 24th and a rather more explicit depiction on March 10th (Ben insisted that I draw him sitting on the potty, and this was honestly the best I could manage under the circumstances).

On Valentine's Day, Ben acquired a stuffed rabbit from my parents, and this is remarkable because it is the first stuffed animal or doll that he has attached a name to of his own volition.  For about 24 hours we were convinced that the rabbit's name was "Max Bund," which was delightfully creative and unexpected.  Then it became increasingly clear that the name was "Max Sponge," which is apparently short for "Max Spongebob."  This pleased us considerably less, but we're still amused that he chose the name for himself.  On February 27th, we got the cat's claws clipped at the groomer's, and yes we take her to a professional groomer because no sane person would attempt this potentially fatal act without due compensation.  Ben was quite impressed by the whole spectacle.  On the 28th, we forgot to get bananas when we were in the produce section, and Ben noticed this and brought it to our attention before we left the store.  He was very pleased with himself for having remembered the bananas.

Saturday, March 6, was a day that I will long cherish.  Students and faculty from our college's music program put on a series of children's concerts at the two local libraries.  They are fantastic, and Ben loves them.  The musicians talk about their instruments and the music, and it's all very hands-on and interactive.  At the March concert, a group of students were playing percussion instruments from Ghana, including a marimba-like instrument that had gourds hanging below the keys for additional resonance.  Afterward, Ben got to play this, and he was hammering out a fairly impressive little melody.  So the music student commented, "Hey, that kid's got a great ear!"  Not having noticed all the equipment, you see.  Delicious irony.  And I agreed, "Yeah, he's got a great ear, especially considering it's bionic," and I proceeded to explain that he's deaf and that he has access to sound through technology.  The guy's jaw dropped, and he was absolutely amazed.  I really felt like Ben had totally transformed this person's conception of what it means to be deaf.

For Spring Break (starting March 14) we visited Neil's parents in the Catskills and got a couple of days of skiing in.  Ben's favorite experience from this was getting to eat an orange every day in the lodge.  The one time we tried to put him on his skis, he protested loudly and vehemently.

On March 29th, Ben had an audiology appointment in Buffalo, and during one of the "listening games" he got to put a piece of cardboard "food" into the mouth of an animal every time he heard a sound.  Obviously one of the animals must have been an elephant.  At some point we told him a "Fiona and Emily" story in which their mother takes them to Buffalo to see Michelle Dube and play listening games, and this has now become his Most Favorite Story of All Time; he requests that we tell it several times a day.

The 30th was our fateful Seder at which Ben fell sick, and you can see that he visited the pediatrician the next day.  Here is our only good picture from the Seder, plus some from an Easter egg hunt at his friend Jackson's house a few days later.