The Deaf Community

Need an example of why hearing parents of deaf children don't want their children involved in the Deaf community? Here is a comment left on my blog by a Deaf adult who quite obviously disagrees with my parenting choices.

"LOL. I had to chuckle at this entry and comments, really.Nobody said anything to the hearing people who manipulated our lives in the long run. When we expel our opinions upon others, you whine?Actually, I believe that Deaf people were not sneering at the kid, they were RUDE at *you* because what you did was very selfish. "I want him to yowl like Mommy and Daddy!"That is the whole thing -- they were probably rude to the fact that you are selfish mother.R-Get a life.R-"

Hmmmm... name calling, rude comments. I don't want my son to be like you. Because you're deaf? No, because you are being nasty. In case you are wondering we started out signing with Noah as an infant and only chose a CI when after almost 2 years he didn't know any words or signs. In spite of the fact that it was recommended that we stop the signing when Noah was implanted we continued to sign so that he would be able to communicate with the Deaf community if he chose. In fact, Noah watches Signing Time videos to keep him occupied during his CI mappings. We didn't want Noah to see Deaf people at Walmart and not understand what they were doing - we wanted him to be able to communicate. Noah was not able to sign a single word until after he began speaking. His Optic Nerve Hypoplasia and Nystagmus made it so that that he was not able to make any sense of our hand movements until he connected the word that he heard with the sign that he saw. I don't recall ever thinking anything like "I want him to yowl like Mommy and Daddy". I'm pretty sure my decisions were made more based on access to communication and having a chance to make sense of his world. Sure, it's easier for me that he speaks my language but if he was only able to speak German then I'd just have to learn German, wouldn't I?

You know how I welcomed all the Deaf people in my last post and said I hoped you would stick around? I wasn't refering to people who were going to question my parenting choices or say that I was selfish. If I am so selfish, I think perhaps I might've given up on my little boy 2 years ago when he was fighting for his life in the NICU. When he was in septic shock the first time they told us that he would most likely be in a vegetative state and would certainly have some level of hearing loss. I was willing to accept my son no matter what. Yes, even if he was deaf.

The Deaf Community at Walmart, Part II

It seems that yesterday a number of Deaf people either came across my blog or at the very least my post about my experience with 3 ASL users at Walmart. Welcome! :-) Anybody want to babysit a deaf-blind toddler that throws up a lot? Just kidding, sort of. I've often thought it would be really cool to have a culturally Deaf babysitter for Noah so that he could experience some of that world as he was growing up, but I wouldn't pick a random person from the Internet just based on their comments on my blog. Anyway, I just wanted to welcome my Deaf readers and say that I hope you stick around. Here is another post I wrote about the Deaf Community and my frustrations about Deaf Awareness Day here is Noah's first Vlog where you can see some of his signs that he knows. In case you can't understand it, that sign he keeps doing over and over again is banana. He loves bananas!

How well do you know Noah? (A Quiz)

Some of the questions you can figure out, others you can guess, some are in old blog posts, and some you just have to know!

1. On what holiday was Noah born?
2. What was Noah's due date?
3. What was Noah's first word?
4. What was Noah's first sign?
5. How old was Noah when he began successfully eating pureed food?
6. What is Noah's favorite TV show?
7. What is Noah's favorite DVD series?
8. What color are Noah's teeth?
9. How long was Noah in the NICU?
10. How many times (since NICU discharge) has Noah been admitted to the hospital?
11. What is Noah's favorite letter?
12. What is Noah's middle name?

Leave your answers in the comment section. I'll announce the winner (and the correct answers) in a week, assuming anyone actually guesses!

Guess where we went yesterday?

One more hint...

Bathtime?

It's nice to be advanced at something...

"higher level thinking/talking/listening"

This is a note that our speech therapist made during our therapy session this week. People are always telling me that Noah is "so smart" or "so happy" and I typically ignore it. I mean, those are nice intangible comments that people make so that moms don't feel bad about their disabled kiddo.
"Sure he can't walk very well, but he's so smart" or
"I know he can't eat, but at least he's happy".
Higher level thinking/talking/listening is a bit more specific, though. During our session she commented that she is able to use more advanced language with him than with all of her other therapy kids of a similar age and that his auditory comprehension is amazing. I always get comments that he's doing well with the implant, but I guess I didn't realize he was doing THAT well. It's hard to believe that less than a year ago we would spend an entire session teaching Noah to notice the presence and absence of sounds.
"I hear that bell ringing!" "The bell stopped."
Now we have whole conversations with Noah.
"Put the farmer in the tractor, Noah."
"No. Pig tractor." (puts the pig in the tractor) "Vroom."
"Pigs can't drive tractors!"
"Ok. Horse." (removes the pig and puts the horse in the tractor, giggling because he knows that horses can't drive tractors either)
At home we're working on following two and three step directions and he really hasn't been doing well with it. Our therapist seems to think that he gets it but is just "being 2". I do agree with that to a point - he much prefers to do the opposite of what is asked (hence the pig & cow driving the tractor). I'm still going to keep working on it, though. I'd hate to find out she was wrong a year from now.

Halloween Memories

Noah spent his first Halloween in the NICU at Children's National Medical Center. He was finally making progress on the vapotherm at 5 months old, and they were trying valiently to kick us out (too bad our original hospital didn't want us back!). I loved his little Halloween sleeper. It was his first 0-3 outfit, and it was a too big, but he had an IV board on his arm so that was the only way to do it. He only wore it for about 5 minutes, though. He was still getting fevers of around 104 regularly so most of the evening hours were spent in just a diaper.Halloween #2 (17 months old) was right around the time that things started to look up for us. Noah had just come off of O2. He had just started to get steady in sitting and to crawl. He was starting to notice a few environmental sounds with his hearing aids. The exotropia was dealt with and he was beginning to focus and track with his eyes. What a difference a year makes! Halloween #3 (29 months) is here and Noah is no longer a baby. He can walk. He can talk. He can even eat (sort of). For the first time my little boy wanted a say in what he wore and where he wore it. He was not about to go inside when all the fun trick or treaters were outside. Everytime someone came to the house he would squeal in excitement and tell them "trick or treat" and then "bye-bye" and "see you later". We didn't end up taking him trick or treating anywhere, but I can't imagine him having more fun than he did waiting with his face pressed up against the glass of our storm door for the next kids to come by.