8 Months Hearing

Natalie had her last audiogram and booth testing 2 weeks ago. This was the best audiogram we have gotten on her. When we are in the booth, Natalie will hear a series of sounds produced and she is conditioned to turn her head once she hears the sound. Once she turns her head, she is rewarded by animals that make sounds and light up. We do 1 ear at a time and the other one is turned off so we can precisely gage how well her hearing is in each ear, since it can vary.

Natalie is now hearing 25 db across almost all the frequencies now. (except for 1 in one of her ears which was at 30 db). This is such a wonderful thing and I am so glad we have gotten to this point. A person with normal hearing is anywhere from 0-25 db. When Natalie was tested as an infant, she could not hear at all even with hearing aids at 110 db.

We taught her when we say "touchdown" to put her hands in the air and that has been really fun.

Go Buckeyes!

She is still learning so many new things and I really think she is on the verge of so many new words. We  have been transitioning in our therapy from animal sounds to actually saying the name of the animal/object. She is getting really close on so many things. I am reading tons and tons with her and we have been pointing out things and working on vocabulary. It is very exciting to see her progression. I have really taken for granted kids with normal vocabulary at this age. Now when I hear kids her age and how much they are saying, I am almost surprised at how many words they know. We still have a lot to catch up on, but I think she is doing so well for only 8 months of hearing. 

And, we will be headed back to Ohio come summertime. This time a little south of Buckeye Country and we are probably going to enroll her in a Moog program outside of Cincinnati. Very excited for this opportunity for her.

the littlest buckeye