Preschool Eval and Audiology check

Today was filled with appointments for Sean!  Preschool Evaluation and Audiology check-up.

Music to OUR ears...

"Sean is one of the most impressive preschoolers with cochlear implants to come through our doors!"  
We received these comments from the City of Chesapeake Public Schools Preschool Evaluation team.  I can't tell you how much joy these words brought to my heart.  We (Sean's team) have worked so hard to get Sean where he is today.  It's amazing the progress, in just 7 months, our little man has made, learning to listen and speak.  There's no denying that the last 20 months have been VERY challenging!  Filled with understanding and accepting multiple diagnosis' (bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, mondini malformation, Pendred Syndrome), hearing aids, ENT appointments, audiology appointments, booth testing, speech therapy 3 x's a week, cochlear implant surgery, activation, "learning to listen," and not to mention the "terrible 2's!"

Sean has been receiving speech therapy services through Early Intervention for the last 18 months.  Once he turns 3, this April 6th, these services come to an end and the next step is to be evaluated by the public school system to see if Sean is eligible for continued services.  Based on Sean's medical diagnosis, Deaf/Hearing Impaired, he should be eligible for special education within the public schools.  So, as excited as we were to hear from the preschool evaluation team, we now worry that because he is doing so well, it may be tough to receive continued services.  It's clear Sean still has a ways to go "learning to process language."

Oh, I can't forget to mention that the nurse that served on the Preschool Evaluation team was Buzz Lightyear's Mom!! LOL.  At first, I thought she was joking that her son was a huge Buzz fan and just "thought" he was Buzz Lightyear.  Nope, her son is THE Buzz Lightyear, in Disney World that is!  

Sean did amazingly well with his Audiologist, Mike, today.  He got a little teary eyed when the "black cord" had to be hooked up to Sean's processor for some "fine tuning" of sound.  I guess it's the association of the "black cord" being connected to sound that scared him at activation.  It was pretty neat hearing Sean be able to let us know when the processor was turned on or off!  Such a smart boy! 
Once the processors were fine tuned, we headed into the sound booth!  Lucky for Sean, Anne, his first Audiologist who fitted him for HA's, was at CHKD, and she got to go in the booth with Sean and do his first "conditioned response" booth test.  So instead of listening and looking for sound and having an animal light up and make noise, Sean now has to listen for the sound and once he hears it, he placed a ping pong ball in the bucket!  Thanks to Anne, Mike, and a third Audiologist, Sean did amazingly well and is a start CI student in the booth!