Amanda Calls BINGO-Captioned Video Clip

BINGO!  You  gotta love it!  And what better way for Amanda to practice her speaking skills?! It's practical and fun and as the BINGO caller, it gave her LOTS of enunciation opportunities as well as grammar and syntax.

Watch this 8 minute and 56 second captioned video clip of our first attempt at playing BINGO since Amanda had her cochlear implant activated 5 months ago.   

Did we understand her? Were there any confusions?  Did someone lose the game due to Amanda's pronunciation.....OR not paying attention?  Watch and see!

Keep in mind that American Sign Language is Amanda's primary mode of communication and that she never ever heard anything until her CI activation August 12, 2008 following her CI surgery July 14, 2008.  Nor did she spend any extended length of time using her voice. 

We bought the bingo game specifically for her to practice her speech skills. We also plan to use it to practice her speechreading and listening skills as well.   

Notice that the first number she called was O 62.  She pronounces it O six-two.  During the course of the game she increases her confidence and abilities to the point of knowing that during spoken English, people say O sixty-two.  She even self-corrects a few times.

We're very pleased with how it went!  Go Amanda!!

Lots of New Sounds 4 1/2 months After Activation

Fourteen year old Amanda heard chihuahua, Goldy walking through dry leaves and "we" (meaning "I") decided it would be fun to sweep them up.  She did a good job, enjoyed herself and didn't stop until they were all swept up.  (Then she marched in and asked her dad for money--which he did NOT give her.  We think she was kidding.)

Amanda helped her brother, Joseph connect earphones to his iPhone.  Sometimes she uses the earphones to listen to herself play the piano keyboard or her iPod or the TV.

Gonzálo, Jennifer and Goldy are very pleased with Amanda's progress!

Daddy's girl all the way!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

This was an incredible New Years Day for Amanda!  Last year - January 1, 2008, Amanda heard one thing.  Absolutely nothing.

This New Years Day, 4 1/2 months after her cochlear implant activation, we sat outside our home in sunny Southern California for about an hour and we listened.

AMANDA HEARD:

Vehicles passing by

Dogs barking

Goldy's dog tags jingling

Jennifer sniffing and blowing her nose (FIRST TIME)

Jennifer coughing (FIRST TIME)

Herself sniffing (FIRST TIME)

Herself calling Goldy (a little bit) (FIRST TIME)

Airplanes (a little bit) (FIRST TIME)

Jennifer sighing (FIRST TIME)

Pen dropping  (FIRST TIME)

Ice Cream Truck (FIRST TIME)

Birds tweeting (FIRST TIME) and Amanda tweeted back

Leaves Crunching (FIRST TIME)

Camera Shutter (FIRST TIME)

Our slippers shuffling on the sidewalk (FIRST TIME)

Jennifer singing, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" 

Her dad, Gonzálo whistling (a little bit) (FIRST TIME)

Gonzálo snapping his fingers

Everyone crunching Sun Chips except herself  (Same thing happened with popcorn last month)

Each of us calling her name

Other recent new sounds for Amanda have included awareness of the sounds that bodily functions make.  Enough said.

Today she was watching Tom and Jerry and could hear the slurping, crashing, zinging, hitting, plunking, screeching, zooming, clicking, buzzing, yelping, smooshing, and all the other sounds effects involved when a TV cartoon cat and mouse get into it.

2009 is going to be a FANTASTIC year!