Saturday, December 4, 2010

LahDeeDah

Today, class outing to see Tangled with Sofia and her posse.

New job working on a European Community project on Educational/Environmental Sustainable Development.
I cut my hair and I cut my nails. New look, new life.

Last year at this time, I was desperate, stressed, aggressive and clawing. Now, bring on the holiday cheer.

I had a meeting with Jordan's teachers on Thursday. Aside from the fact that they were pleased with his performance and his dramatic high school entrance, a common comment was that he tends to make inappropriate comments at strange moments during lessons.

He does this with me, as well. I explained to them that for eight years he wore hearing aids and did not have access to spontaneous language. I explained that to learn a new vocabulary word he needed to have it repeated at least 100 times, that he could not do homework without speechreading and that all that changed for the better after the cochlear implant. I told them that he shoots comments in the middle of class to hear himself talk, to feel a part of the environment and to maintain some type of control over that environment. He is in a growth phase after dealing with three years of separation and starting a new school where he knew nobody...and feel free to add a healthy dose of adolescent testosterone considering he's in full blown puberty.
I then requested that they put a certain hot, blonde classmate next to him;-)

In any case, sending love from Tuscany, because this is a moment when I have a lot of love to give...

3 comments:

Dianrez said...

It's the nature of being deaf, isn't it...always a bit out of phase, a step behind, off key. Do parents and teachers of CI kids often forget that isn't a full and immediate hearing especially in group situations?

It seems to be similar to sign language groups where one happens to be looking in the wrong direction in group conversations. Aided hearing isn't a 360 degree perspective.

Unknown said...

It is our job to always remind teachers hat it isn't full and immediate hearing in group situations;-)
For some, it is a 360 degree perspective in independent settings...like in the car.
Thanks as always for your comment:-)

K.L. said...

Hi Jodi,
My daughter also sometimes has inappropriate or out of context comments. However, they are becoming few and far between now that she has two implants. Have you considered getting Jordan another implant so he is bilateral? I was stunned at how much better my daughter's hearing was in noise after the second implant.