Deaf Day @ Disneyland March 14, 2009

Amanda, her dad, Gonzálo and her brother, Joseph went to Deaf Day at Disneyland on Saturday, March 14, 2009.  

It's been 6 months since Amanda's cochlear implant was activated and her brain is still working to make sense of what she's hearing in noisy environments.  She doesn't always share freely about what she can hear, so it's exciting when she volunteers information.

When she got home, she told me that she heard the music, actors singing and speaking in the live stage play, "Aladdin" in Disney's California Adventure.  She sat up close and was especially excited to hear the Genie's voice.  :-)

Amanda used a sport band to be sure that her processor stayed firmly in place on the fast rides.  It was cold and she also kept her sweatshirt hood on most of the day.  

She posted additional Disney photos on her facebook page.  

It has been an exciting 6 months adventure and we're looking forward to the next 6 months.  Her PE teacher, Lindy texted me the other day to say that Amanda kept saying she heard a pager or something ringing.  Lindy tried to locate what it was, but couldn't figure it out.

Later she sent me another text message to say she had finally figured out what it was that Amanda had been hearing.  It was birds outside.  :-)

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!

Amanda is hearing lots of new things!

SMOOCH!  "I heard that!"

Dad & Joseph: "Amanda!"

Amanda:  "What?"

Since Amanda's last mapping a month ago she has been hearing more and more each day!  In fact she just posted a new blog entry with photos of some of the new things she is hearing.  

It's pretty amazing since she has only been activated since August (4 months ago) and had NEVER EVER heard anything before. 

One of Amanda's goals for herself was to be able to have people call her name and have her be able to answer and say, "What?"  

After she posted her blog entry tonight, she was surprised to hear herself kissing her chihuahua, Goldy. 

Last week Amanda and I were playing cards and Amanda could hear the difference between 8 and ace!   They looked the same on the lips but she could hear the "t" at the end of eight and the "s" at the end of ace.

Check out her blog entry:  Deaf Girl Amanda

amandakristineconde.blogspot.com

And below, if you didn't have a chance to view them, are two videos of us doing two elf dances; a Disco Elf dance and a Country Elf dance.  Amanda can more easily follow the music and dance moves since her cochlear implant.

The videos will be available until mid January.  Let me know what you think of our fabulous moves!

Country Elf Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Conde Elf Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Amanda and School

Busy couple of days!  Amanda received an honor roll 

award last Thursday.  She often gets positive behavior 

recognition, but seldom realizes the same academic 

triumph.  So we were quite pleased, and of course 

attended the award ceremony.

The next day, parent teacher-teacher conferences 

were held.  Amanda is in 8th grade and rotates for 

8 periods among 7 teachers plus a speech therapist 

(4 times weekly) and an audiologist (once a week.)

Mr. Zarembka-Math         Ms. Maxwell-English                                   

Ms. Chute-Family Life         Mr. Branton-History

Mr. Tarpay-Science               Ms. Caustin-Speech & Language

                                                                  

Mrs. Gleicher-Reading

Her Adapted Physical Education teacher,  Ms. Hoffee was unavailable as was the

Audiologist, Ms. Rogan, so unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of them.  However, we maintain regular contact with them so we know how she's doing, but I would've liked pictures.

All of Amanda's core academic teachers (English, Reading, Science, History and Math) are deaf.  Since the focus of the school is on instruction through ASL, the SLP and the Audiologist support what instruction she is getting in the classroom.  

Amanda has only been activated less than four months and had NEVER EVER heard anything prior to implantation.  Hearing aids did not benefit her although she wore them diligently, especially in her early years hoping to hear something.  She began asking for an implant at age 10 and after major insurance battles, was finally approved for surgery just before she turned 14.

Both the SLP and the Audiologist have noticed improvement in speech production this school year.  And since her last mapping, we have all noticed a very positive effect on what she is able to hear.  She is increasing her accuracy and consistency in being able to distinguish between individual phonemes, words, phrases and sentences.

And she's immensely able to hear the ruckus that goes on in deaf classrooms.  In fact she sometimes acts as an interpreter for students trying to get deaf teachers attention. The student will yell out and Amanda will let the teacher know the student wants them. THAT would never have happened before.  So it's an interesting way to measure progress, but progress it is.