Our Inspired Journey

On April 30th, Cole had his latest evaluation done at his school by his therapists. Every 6 months he goes through a series of tests to determine how he is doing in the areas of Language, Vocabulary, Speech and Social Skills. Here are the latest results...

It is important to remember his age (actual and hearing) when reading these results. His hearing age refers to how long his cochlear implants have been activated. Since he was profoundly deaf before receiving CI's, his hearing age is as long as he has had access to any sound. Our goal is always to help him score higher than his hearing age on every test, making up for the time we lost before he had his CI's. This is why he goes to therapy 7 hours a week and we work so consistently at home on his goals! We want him to gain more than 6 months progress in 6 months time so he eventually shows no delays in any of the following areas...

Cole's ACTUAL age: 2 years, 9 months
Cole's HEARING age: 1 year, 3 months

Auditory Development
Test: LittlEars
This test assesses the auditory development in children with normal hearing and in children with hearing loss that are using cochlear implants or hearing aids. It covers auditory development in the first 2 years after receiving CI's / HA's or in hearing children up to 2 years of age.
He reached every goal on this test! It only goes up to 24 months, but he aged out of it by meeting every goal, so he is beyond 24 months here! Yeah Cole!!!

Language
Test: Preschool Language Scales - 4
This test assesses language use and understanding using objects and pictures. Developed for children with normal hearing, the PLS-4 covers a wide range of language skills including use and understanding of language during play, vocabulary development, direction following, question answering, speech development, logical thinking and use and understanding of sentences and their grammatical components.
Language Understanding: 2 years, 7 months
(10 month gain)
34th %ile amongst his typically hearing peers
Language Usage: 2 years, 4 months
(6 month gain)
23rd %ile amongst his typically hearing peers

Vocabulary
Test: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
This test assesses children's understanding of vocabulary. Children are shown four semantically similar pictures and asked to choose the picture that best describes the word spoken by the examiner.
Vocabulary Understanding: 2 years, 9 months
This is the first time Cole has had this test and he scored right at his actual age! Praise the Lord!

Test: Expressive Vocabulary Test/ 2
This test assesses children's use of vocabulary. Children are asked to name color drawings in a book.
Vocabulary Usage: 2 years, 3 months
4th %ile amongst his typically hearing peers
Again, this is the first time Cole's vocabulary has been tested, but he was able to name many of the pictures shown to him, 6 months behind his actual age.

Speech
Cole's speech therapist took a spontaneous speech sample from what he was saying over the course of the 2 hour evaluation time. She was looking for errors he made consistently that could help her determine at what age his speech was equivalent to. Since he made a few errors that should be corrected by 18 months of age, (vowel errors and some backing) his speech score is lower than the rest of the scores.
Speech: 1 year, 3 months
Since Cole has enough vocabulary now to work with, he will be starting a formal speech plan next week to correct some of his speech errors. The reason this is SO important, is that we want other people to be able to understand him! Right now, others can understand right around 50% of what he says, but obviously our desire is that he was communicate with everyone with no limitations :)

Social Skills
Test: Social Skill Development Checklist
This test assesses a child's interaction with objects, communicative intentions and responses to initiations by others.
Interactions with Objects: 3 years, 5 months
(9 month gain, 8 months beyond his actual age!)
Responses to Others: 2 years, 10 months
(7 month gain, 1 month beyond his actual age!)
Initiated Interactions with Others: 2 years, 7 months
(8 month gain)

Now that you've seen the results, I can tell you that Cole was in less than his best mood while being tested. It took bribing, sweet talking and frequent breaks to the water fountain or giving him time to drive a little toy car around the room to really assesses where he was in each of these areas. It was draining on everyone, including Cole, and for the first time since we started this journey with him about a year and half ago, I saw him struggle.

Up to this point, I haven't noticed him struggle with much yet because of his age and happy-go-lucky disposition. In the middle of this testing, however, I saw him trying...really focusing on the pictures at one point, and after a while say, "Don't know!" He's never said that to me before! I started realizing that I talk to him using words and phrases I know he'll understand. He's not often had to answer a question from us that hasn't been quickly rephrased if he doesn't understand the first way it is presented. To see my boy struggle brought me to tears that morning. I tried to hide it so as not to distract him when he was trying to hard, but I couldn't and his therapist handed me a tissue in the middle of his questioning. I blame it on being pregnant this time, but told them I'm not sure what excuse I'll come up with once I'm not!

After taking a quick trip to the water fountain, his therapist told me that even though he seemed to be having such a hard time, she noticed from his answers that he had made a 10 month gain from last time...She reminded me that we push him during these tests beyond what he's used to hearing so we find out what he really knows and not just what we think he knows :) I totally get it. It was so good for me to see, so that I remember to vary the way I talk to him andremind our whole family, especially Ryder to do the same. It's easy to get in the mode of taking "Cole's way" as if it's a language all it's own without remembering that we want him to be able to interact with everyone, everywhere! Especially those who aren't in therapy with him 7 hours a week :)

We are so blessed by his progress and excited to tackle more speech goals so others understand him better. Please be praying for him as things get harder and require more focus from him as we move forward. Sometimes it feels like he is learning a foreign language that everyone around him is pressing in on him to learn...and sometimes it seems like he's had enough of it all. And then there are the moments when he tells me a long story about something he is excited about. It doesn't usually make much sense at this point, but the joy in his eyes as he tells me makes this all worth it. Everytime John or I step into a room after being gone for any length of time, we are greeted immediately with a huge, "Hi Mommy!" or, "Hi Daddy!" from Cole while his brother and sister follow his lead. He really is the sweetest, most caring little thing.

John and I are praying now for continued insight as we raise him into the boy and man God desires for him to be. I love his sensitive side, his dramatic side and his rough and tumble side that all make up our boy. Lord, continue to give us wisdom as we raise one of the most beautiful and insightful boys you ever made...tests can give us a glimpse, but YOU have all the answers :) We praise the One with the greatest insight today!