Adapting to Hearing Loss and Speech Delay

How does Christian adapt to his hearing loss?

Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. I noticed he acted different when he came home from the hospital before he was even officially diagnosed with hearing loss. I had never seen a baby that was picky about which side you laid them on. Christian was very picky as early as one month old. If you laid him on the left side (good ear) he would cry or get fussy but as soon as you laid him on the right (bad ear) he would stop. Why? When you cover up the left ear he can't hear much or nothing at all. He is 2 years old now and he still refuses to lay on the left side unless he is in a deep sleep. The bath tub could create problems the first year as well. If you laid his left ear in the water or water was poured over the left ear he would cry or at times scream. It never bothered him to have his right ear in water or have water dumped over that ear. He tolerates it much better now..he still doesn't like the left ear to be emerged in water but pouring water on that ear isn't as traumatic for him anymore. I think he has got use to it. Riding in the car can be a challenge to him. If you place him behind the driver's seat his good ear is next to the door and speakers. Making it harder for him to understand you or at times to hear you at all. So, if we place him behind the passenger seat his good ear is in the middle and he has a more balanced sound between the radio and someone talking, making it easier to hear. Restaurants can be a challenge. If it is loud or noisy and you are on his bad side he usually won't respond to a word you say, because he can't hear you or your words are distorted to him and he doesn't realize you are talking to him. If you call is name or talk to him on the good side he almost always responds depending on how loud you talk. But, sometimes we get lucky and a restaurant isn't busy and is quite and him hearing isn't as much of a problem. Of course on a daily basis if a t.v, washing machine, radio and such is on in the back ground he may not be able to locate your direction at first, have trouble understanding what you are saying and sometimes he may not hear you at all depending the volume of things and how far away he is. Sometimes he mistakes what you are saying...for instance, if you say "please" he will sign "cheese" or if you say "look" he may sign "book" and most often if you say "stop" he will sign "dog." As long as it is not real noisy and he isn't to far away from you he does pretty good with hearing everything.


Speech delayments?

Every medical professional has there own opinion whether or not children with "single sided deafness" have speech delayments or not. Some say they may have them and some say there shouldn't be any problems with speech. Everyone is different and handles it differently. As for Christian he has speech delayments. From 15 months to 25 months he could only say "Mama and cat" and not up until the last 2 weeks he has started saying "yeah and dada." He still babbles and jabbers a lot throughout the day but there are no real words. By the age of 2 he should have 240 words which includes putting words together to make short sentences or phrases. He only says 4 words and 2 words are brand new to his vocabulary list. So, how have I been handling this problem? He has been receiving speech therapy since he was 16 months old. Even though he is speech delayed he is still able to communicate, how? At 17 months old I started teaching him sign with the help of his speech therapist. He can now successfully sign 24 words. Words include; "finish, more, sleep, eat, milk, cheese, bath, car, dog, deer, baby, sqoosh (his favorite dog), ball, book, shoes, rain, sit, fish, teddy bear, cereal, daddy, apple, drink, and play" the newest one! About 4 to 6 weeks ago he started putting words together. Such as, "more milk, more cheese, eat more, more cereal, and finished book." His words continuously increase...he learns a new word every week to two weeks. Most people with "single sided deafness" learn to read lips. He pays more attention to your hands then lips so lip reading is not a good option for him right now. Signing also benefits us in a restaurant. If someone is on his bad side and Christian can't hear what someone is saying to him, you can sign to him and not have to yell to communicate with him. It also cuts down on his frustration with having to concentrate so much on what your saying. Some people criticize me for teaching him sign and some people praise me for it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and personally I couldn't care less what people think! I have to do what I feel is best for him and signing works in his case. In the beginning my goal was not for him to become fluent with sign it was to simply give him a way to communicate. Give him a voice. Through the hard work and dedication on his part and his family he can communicate despite being hard of hearing or speech delayed. We still strive to get him to talk verbally and he tries really hard to say the words we want him to repeat. But, almost always the wrong sounds come out unless it is mama, cat, yeah and dada. His father and I want him to thrive in life and we will do what ever it takes to do that...even if it means taking a different approach then most kids his age. If God forbid he ever loses the hearing in his left ear and goes completely deaf we will still have a form of communication. But, regardless we will continue to encourage both and hopefully soon he will be talking all the time and be able to sign as well