Chance passes the test again..

We had another audiological appointment. We haven't changed the mapping since last August and Chance did so well in the booth, that the audiologist didn't see a need to change anything this time either. We'll have another appointment in August and the mapping and T-levels will be checked then.

Chance is doing really really well with his two implants. He is now scoring higher with both than he does with just one implant alone. Which makes sense....us non deaf people hear better when both ears are functioning like they should. I go crazy when one of my ears is clogged. It makes me realize just how much I appreciate both of my ears working at the same time.

For all of these tests, Chance is put in a booth and three different measurements of his hearing are taken.
The first is the standard beep test. His audiogram looks better than it did last time. We like to hear this kind of news:) Chance was hearing at 20-25 decibels across the whole graph in all of the sound ranges. For this test, Chance is given a bucket of cars and a slide for the cars to drive off of. When he hears a beep, he lets a car go down the slide and it lands in another bucket.

Chance sits, car poised waiting for his opportunity to send the car off. I sat in the booth with Chance and I'll be honest. Some of those beeps were really quiet! It had to be really quiet for me to hear them. And there Chance was shooting cars off the slide even for those really quiet beeps.

The next test is the sentence test. Chance is tested with only one implant on, then the implants are switched, so the other side gets tested, and then he is tested with both implants on. A recorded voice says things like:
"The orange is very sweet."
"Children like strawberries."
"The train is moving fast."
"Mother shut the window."

They are just arbitrary sentences that Chance listens to and then repeats back what he thought he heard.
Of the sentences Chance did not get right, I could see that some of them were vocabulary issues more than hearing issues. For instance, one of the sentences was," Mother took her eldest son." Chance missed eldest, but he does not know what that word means. We don't ever use it, and I don't know that he would hear that word anywhere.

Another sentence he missed was," There was a bad train wreck." Chance said,"There was a train red." Chance does not know what wreck means. So he is thinking and compensating when something doesn't sound familiar. Chance scored better on this test when both implants were in, getting 85% correct.

The next test is hardest because it is arbitrary words that have no context to them. You either get it or you don't. There are no surrounding words to help you figure out context.

Again, some of the misses on this test can be attributed to vocabulary rather than hearing. Chance compensated for some of the words he did not know.

One of the words was rouge. We never use that word and a 7 year old would not use that word or even come across it. Chance compensated and said that he heard rouce.

Another word was dab. Chance does not know that word either so he said dad.

Then there was mate. Chance is only 7 so we haven't used that word a lot with him:) Chance said nate instead.

Chance scored 76% on the word tests. Considering that Chance is going cold on these sentences and words and does not have the vocabulary or experience of an adult to aid him in these cold tests, he is quite impressive.

Chance's percentages on these tests is better with both implants than with either one alone. The audiologist says Chance is depending on the two implants together more. Which is what the rest of us do. We rely on both ears together. Any adult I have talked to who has hearing in only one ear, says that there is a big difference between hearing with one hear or hearing with two. Most of the adults we know who have hearing in only one ear, originally had hearing in both ears but lost one due to a virus or age.

We are most pleased with Chance's progress with the implants. He is hearing well in the booth, catching what is said at school, and hearing us from quite a ways a way. The progress he is making just marches on.