Today I went for a walk to get the mail with Chance's little brother. Chance's little brother had the keys to the mailbox which also happen to be keys to the van. He loves to push the button that locks the car so that he can hear the little honk sound it makes. As we strolled down the driveway, the little "honk" sound could be heard every few seconds.
At the bottom of the driveway were Chance and his friend. Chance was preoccupied with something and looked over in our direction with a questioning expression and then began looking down the road and over to his side. It occurred to me that Chance was trying to locate the sound he was hearing. He had looked in our direction first, but it didn't seem to make sense that we would be the cause of the noise since we were just walking down the driveway.
"Chance, it is the van honking." I explained, and showed him the van keys.
Chance started to laugh. "I thought it was that car up there!" He said pointing to a car that was pulling out of a nearby driveway.
He heard the sound coming from our direction, but it didn't make sense that a horn would be honking since no one was in the van. It was interesting to watch Chance hone in and locate the source of the sound. He guessed it would be the car pulling out when he couldn't figure out how it was coming from our direction.
I continue to be amazed at how well Chance is localizing sounds. He is getting quite good at figuring out where noises are coming from. Before the implants, it was a struggle for him to figure out where sounds were coming from. He would look all around and have to improvise with what he saw to deduce where the sounds might be coming from. Now, I routinely see Chance turning his head in the direction of the passing motorcycle, or the person who is talking loud at the store. He is doing what the rest of us who hear do, turning to see what is going on when we hear something that is new, loud or suddenly different.
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