GOT KLEENEX?

This is a video of Kevin's cochlear implant activation...


And, this is six months later...


These videos have been posted with parental permission. Anytime parents share these personal moments in their children's lives, I am touched and appreciative. Each of these videos serves to create awareness. This is an exceptional activation experience and I am so happy for the parents who got this type of reaction from their baby...beautiful baby. Jordan's activation was not like this, not in the least. He screamed, ripped the processor from his head and refused to put it back on his ear. Apparently the audiologist made the initial mapping too loud and any time I even came close to his head with the processor, he screamed, shook and ran. Jordan was terrified to hear, terrified of sound, loud sound. I understood his fear, but I had no patience for it...Am I a bad mother? My son is stubborn, but I am way more stubborn than he is and in the end on our next trip to Pisa, the audiologist and speech therapist managed to get him to wear the ci. At that point the map was low enough and Jordan started smiling, that embarrassed type of "I was scared and it doesn't hurt" bashful grin. We stopped at a pizzeria on the way back to Grosseto and he banged forks and knives on our drinking glasses and plates, the table, etc. People kept turning and looking at us and we kept right on banging, laughing and hearing. Jordan has grown and flown since that first terrifying activation.
As has Kevin, and I look forward to more videos monitoring his progress with the ci from his parents who no doubt will be working hard to stimulate his language...