It's been so long since I posted anything on the speech goals Cole is working on lately! It's amazing for me to think about where he was 2 years ago when his implants had just been turned on for the first time and there we were, watching him hear his first sounds at 18 months.
He's come SOOOOO far since then...(Praise God!) Moving on from vowels, for a month now, he's working on putting ending consonant sounds on his words. Every week we focus on a new ending consonant. He's since moved on to /d/ since this video was taken, but here you will see him on his first day with final /t/. This is his 3rd final consonant he's focused on so he's just starting to grasp the idea that words have sounds on the end and it's important to say them too! Up to this point he would almost always omit the final sound in his words.
My little rascal has taken us on quite a ride over the past 2 years and it's fun for me to be posting a snippet of progress with you here in this video. This was taken a few weeks ago on a snow day where his school (along with every other school in the area) was closed due to the crazy weather we were having... As all parents of CI kids know, even though school was closed and he would miss his daily hour of individual therapy that day, the show must go on! So with Valentine's day around the corner and his current speech sound being final /t/ we took the advice of his speech therapist and made a Heart Cat!
I think Ryder and Cora liked joining in too while Rylee slept :)
We're so proud of our boy and how hard he works every day! The more involved I am with his therapy, the more I get it. I observe him once a week with his therapist. We do this on Mondays since that is the same day Cora is a hearing peer in a playgroup for 2 year olds with hearing loss...shes loves it. She was used to being in that room Cole last year, only hearing me say "Cora, shhh!" Now it's her class and her turn to talk to her new friends with CI's while I hold Rylee alongside her, encouraging her with every word she says...she loves it. Before it's her turn to play though, we observe Cole in his classroom for 45 minutes, and then after playgroup, we go back into the observation room and watch him in therapy, alone with his therapist for an hour. In the hour I spend with Cora and Rylee, eating bagels and watching Cole on the computer monitor downstairs while he works so hard just a floor above us, it all comes together for me.
The goals I have in my hand, written by his therapist and teacher, come alive on that screen. In observing I get to see which strategies work best in helping my boy produce sounds he's never made before in his life. In short, I watch miracles happen before my very eyes, as I watch my so, who is deaf, speak. I watch as therapists, whom I pray for daily, use the gifts God has given them to help Cole hear and produce sounds he just now is realizing are a valuable part of communication and worthy of the effort it takes him to produce them!
His therapists early on would be the first to tell you that the boy you see here today has grown in miraculous ways since we first began. It used to be hard to keep his attention for one minute, as he would constantly be looking for a new toy to move on to, from the one being dangled in front of him :) He's always been very independent and opposed to the "planned activity" and so for me to have a chance to show a snippet of time where he showed patience and great effort with a new sound (all while taping him!), that shows you how far he's come...even beyond the words you hear him speak, he has grown!
We're so proud of you Coley!!!
You show us everyday that with God, nothing is impossible!!!
