Chance can talk on the phone

Chance talked for about 5 minutes tonight on the cell phone. He was able to understand most of what was said and his Auntie Chris was able to understand him. We are quite excited that Chance was able to have this conversation. His Auntie Chris lives across the country so she does not see Chance very often. This means that what Chance said was quite clear because Chris would not just be used to being around Chance. You know how sometimes with a child the parents can understand things that others can not because the parents have learned to decipher what is being said? Sometimes it is hard for other people to know exactly what Chance is saying but that is changing. The fact that Chris could have a 5 minute conversation with Chance and tell him things like she was sending stuff in the mail, means Chance is really hearing and not guessing. It is difficult to anticipate what someone is going to say on the phone and you can not rely on lip reading to help you.

Being able to talk on the phone will really help Chance feel a part of things. He is always upset when his siblings can talk to grandma and grandpa on the phone and he can not. And it has been hard for him to watch as his siblings laughed or talked on the phone and then when Chance got on, he could not make heads or tails of what was going on.

Chance can hear on the cell phone and not the home phone though. I wonder what he will think when he suddenly can't hear the person on the other end because the phone cuts out? Will he clue in that the issue is the phone and not him?

Oh, and by the way, tomorrow morning (Wednesday) Chance gets his second ear turned on. We're excited to see how he reacts to having two ears again. Just like with the first ear, it will start low and slowly turn it up. We're hopeful that it will go quickly, as this second ear has been dormant for only four months. Also, since the audiologist, therapists, etc, have no experience with two implants, we're hopeful things go well. (For example, one of the tests is location - can the child locate what direction the sound is coming from. This is accomplished by having about 15 speakers about 12 degrees apart, and putting sound through one of the speakers. The problem is, we don't know if the audiologists even have the setup to do these tests.)