Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Congratulations Corrina!

We live in Canada. Currently our Government considers hearing with two ears as 'experimental' and will not provide the funds necessary for our daughter to receive bilateral cochlear implantation. Due to the fact that this bilateral implants are available in Canada, in other provinces, we wrote to out minister of health demanding that they stop discriminating against our children based on their disability (if Corrina had risidual hearing she would be fitted with an aid in her 'better' ear but because she does not she is told that hearing with one ear is enough) and based on their location. We request to have a bilateral surgery preformed in Newfoundland, which is the very East Coast of Canada, because if we lived in Newfoundland the Provincial Health Care system there would pay for the operation. We sent a letter stating our demands, along with a recommendation from our ENT, about 2 months ago. Just this past week, late October, we received a letter stating that the Government would in fact pay for all the costs of surgery! CORRINA WILL HEAR WITH TWO EARS BY CHRISTMAS! We are excited for her current learning, and thrilled about the impact this will have on her future opportunities!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Receptive Language

Simply put, it's time for a new post! But only a teeny tiny one!
Attention, new link under resources section: The listening Room! This page features wonderful printable murals, charts, songs, pictures, stories, games, etc for AV therapy!

Corrina's receptive language has increased five fold! She now, at 3 1/2 months of hearing, can understand the meaning of her name, bye bye, hello, mmmmm (yummy), shhh go to sleep, no (yahoo!), stop, aaaa for airplane, hot and shoes. She is also continuing to mimic many sounds or intonations we make, like a, a, a for up, up, up, or longer aaaa's when we stretch a word out. She also repeats mmmmm while eating, but in the most cute way I have ever heard. It is so purposeful and quite; she looks very serious while letting us know that something tastes good! Right now I am also enjoying that she knows the word hot. We started teaching it to her with an action: put your pointer finger on object for just a second and quickly pull it away! It is so cute to tell her that things she loves are hot, like pooh bear, and watch her check for heat! Anyway, she knows so many concepts and words very well now. I am finding she knows more than I think she does daily. We are so proud of her and all the hard work she does!