Proud Mama!!!

A couple of weeks ago we headed back to KU Med for another visit for the Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss study that Sadie is a part of.  Sadie knocked it out of the park :)  She was able to point out pictures of various objects and say what they were, and only missed two.  One was a TV that had rabbit ears (they need to update their pictures...pretty sure if it was a flat screen TV she would have known what it was), as well as a picture of a purse. The purse was one of those old lady purses with the ball clasps.  Troy said he was sure Sadie would have answered correctly if the purse had the Coach or Gucci logo on it :)  We KNOW she knows what a purse is because she is obsessed with her Barbie purse (see below picture), she just didn't recognize  that particular type of purse.  She finally said "bag" and they counted it. 

Well, tonight I got the final results back on how she ranked compared to NORMAL hearing kiddos(drum roll please!):

• Receptive language (what she understands)= 99%ile
• Expressive language (what she says)=99%ile

This time last year she was at 93% for receptive and 46% for expressive.  Based on a series of questions I answered on some paperwork, her scores also went up on communication, daily living, and motor skills.  Oddly enough they went down on socialization.  I'm not quite sure why she went down, but don't you worry, I will socialize this kid until the sun comes up :)

Last week we went to the audiologist for a sound booth test. We go about every 6 months at this point.  It is still very hard to pinpoint exactly how well Sadie is hearing because of her age, but we try.  This time we attempted Conditioned Play with her hearing aids in.  Basically they have Sadie put a peg up to her ear and when she hears a sound she puts the peg in the pegboard.  After a few tries, Sadie had it down pat.  She would even say "I heard that!"  She was also able to point out the picture of "xyz" when the audiologist asked her to.  There were 4 pictures on the page and some were of things that were very similar sounding (ie-school and pool).  Sadie got all of them right except for a plate of meat (come on, who knows that!) and a picture of a school, which she has never had exposure to.  She could, however, repeat the words when asked (well, school, was cool, but that is normal for her age).  When we got done, our audiologist informed us that they typically don't even ATTEMPT to train kids to do this type of testing until they are AT LEAST 2.5.  Sadie isn't even 2 years old!!.  Her hearing levels were at about 15-20 decibels (which is below normal conversation levels), except for one high pitched frequency which was at the normal conversation level.  Basically this means we just need to ensure she is hearing her "s's" because that is the frequency that sound falls in.  At this point I am not concerned because Sadie is able to repeat words with "s" in it, as well as add "s" to the end of words when appropriate.  We head back in another 6 months to try again.

These days Sadie LOVES to sing.  She is singing "Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the ABC song, and more.  She also counts to 20, although sometimes leaves out 17 & 18.  She is always asking me "mommy doing?" and when I correct her "WHAT is mommy doing" she always answers the question (ie-Mommy driving)....then WHY did you ask if you already knew...silly girl!

She surprised me the other day by saying "there's a turquoise car."  First of all, I didn't even know she knew that word, and second of all, yep there sure was a turquoise car driving by!!  We are still working with You and I.  She always says "you want that" instead of "I want that."  Hopefully she picks up on it soon.  Otherwise, this child is having full blown conversations with me.  I could not be more thrilled by my baby girl.  Honestly, if you did not see her hearing aids, you would not have a clue that she is hearing impaired.  Just the way I had dreamed. I am one PROUD MAMA!

 Ready to go shopping!

 Ride 'em Cowboys!

Snug as a bug in a rug!