Chance is a celebrity

When I asked Chance how school was going this past week, I got this response: "Well, all the kids are getting to know me for one thing for sure."

"What is that?" I asked trying to figure out what he could be talking about.

Chance just removed the magnet part of his implants and said "Because of these." He said it like I should have guessed that all along.

Not being sure if this was a positive or negative situation, I pressed for more information.

"Do the kids ask about your implants?" I asked.

"YES! Chance said.

"What do they say?" I asked.

"They ask me what they are."

"And what do you tell them?"

"That I am deaf and with out them I can not hear."

"What do the kids say when you tell them that?" I asked still wondering if this was an annoyance to Chance or just a part of his life that he was comfortable with.

"Wow or oh." Chance replied.

"Then what do they say?" I asked wondering if the implants were opening doors for Chance to meet more kids in 5th grade.

Chance started to laugh. "Sometimes they tell me to take the implants off and then ask me if I can hear them." Chance seemed amused by this so I was not alarmed.

"Some of the kids ask me if I can read lips. Then they have me take the implants off and stand in front of me and say stuff to see if I can tell what they are saying."

"Can you tell what they are saying?" I asked.

Chance threw back his head and laughed. "Yes! Then the kids are like, NO WAY!" Chance is an excellent lip reader and I pity anyone that goes up against him.

"One girl came up behind me and I said, "I know you are there because I can feel you walking on the floor." Chance said obviously delighted that he had been able to detect her.

Then Chance said in wonder, "I now know that I can feel noises from the ground!"

"Are the kids nice when they ask you about your implants?" I asked trying to stay neutral but also wanting to know if anyone was harassing Chance about his implants."

"Yes." Chance said. "The kids don't stare at me at this school like they used to at my old school." Chance said with obvious relief.

"The kids would stare at you at your old school?" I asked surprised. I even verified with Chance that the kids at this new school did not stare at him like the kids at his old school.

"The kids at your old school stared more? The kids at your old school saw implants and hearing aids all of the time because lots of kids wore them there."

Chance shrugged, "I don't know why they stared but they did."

Chance obviously feels like he got stared at more at his old school. The only thing I can figure at the old school is sometimes the deaf kids were pulled from their regular classes to go for language help from a School for the Deaf teacher and they usually ate lunch together. Maybe the kids were looking in curiosity at the deaf kids who congregated together at lunch etc. and since they were different from them, they would look over in curiosity. Chance had great friends at his old school both deaf and hearing. I don't think it was mean spirited that Chance felt kids stared more. But is is intriguing that he doesn't feel that way at his new school. There are only two deaf kids at the new school and both wear implants. Maybe they just blend in more with all of the other kids.

Chance does not seem annoyed at all that the kids are asking about his implants which is good. My experience has been that kids are just curious and once they are told about the implants, they just go with the flow. Kids just want to know what they are which is natural.

I did ask Chance's brother who sees Chance quite a bit at school if the kids were nice to him or if anyone was mean because of the implants. His response was,"Not at all."

So, I guess Chance is educating the school about implants and just how gosh darn good he is at lip reading:)

Growing pains

Chance has been in 5th grade for about 2 weeks now. It has been a bit of an adjustment for him. Not academically, but socially. Since Chance started out the year in 4th grade, he got into a little comfort zone. One of his deaf friends was in 4th grade with him and they were overjoyed to have been reunited. There was also a boy from our neighborhood that Chance knew and sat with. Plus, Chance had begun to know many of the kids in 4th grade during the short time he was there. He had some homies that he was comfortable with.

Since this is a charter school, the kids are not kids from the same neighborhood. There are kids from 4 or 5 different cities that attend this school, so when Chance moved up to 5th grade, he was with kids he had never seen before in his life. He started to struggle a little with the fact that he did not know any of the 5th graders. He even started to get teary eyed in the morning when it was time to go to school as opposed to running out the door to ride his bike to school. So, we had some talks about how sometimes new things are hard, but they get better once you get used to them. Realizing that the kids in 5th grade would also have started to find people they were comfortable with during the past few weeks of school, we also gave Chance some Mike and Ike candies and told him to give two candies to two or three 5th grade kids he did not know and introduce himself. The first day, Chance gave some candies to his brother and his brothers friend. Good sharing, wrong people:)'

Now that it has been almost two weeks, Chance says it is getting better in 5th grade. He is not as anxious about going to school and he actually gave me a thumbs up on Friday when I asked him how school had been.

Chance actually will be more social having moved to 5th grade because he'll get to know two grades of kids, having gotten to know some of the 4th graders. When I have been at the school, I have heard kids call out as we walk down the hall,"Hi Chance!" Many of these kids are 4th graders who talk to Chance in the hall and I am sure that 5th grade students will start conversing with Chance in the hall as well as time goes on.

I would like to give a shout out to Michael who goes by Donovan. This sweet boy who is a 5th grader, came and put him arm around Chance one of the mornings that he was teary eyed outside the classroom standing with me and asked him if he wanted to walk into class with him. Thank you Michael who goes by Donovan!

When Chance is feeling emotional, he also doesn't want to go up in front of the class to give the teacher his FM system. I can understand that, so we have just been working on getting Chance comfortable in 5th grade.

Chance's sweet brother has been looking out for him as well and even took a football to school so he could gather a group of kids together to play a game. He made sure to get several 5th graders so that Chance could meet more of them :)

Things are looking up. Chance is getting more comfortable in school AND he got a locker like the junior high kids. Now he feels extra special :)  And I am hearing of new kids each day that Chance is getting to know.

Like Madison and Cody.

Things are looking better.

Inservicing the teachers on the FM system

So I went into Chance's school with two consultants from The School for the Deaf to give an in service to the teachers that work with Chance and the other little boy at the school who uses an implant to hear.

It was just an awareness sort of thing to let the teachers know simple things that can be done that make a big difference to kids who wear implants.  For example,  not talking  into the white board when writing on it, but instead facing the class when giving instruction.  Or when kids answer questions, having the teacher repeat what was said such as,"Jimmy said conifers are trees that don't shed their leaves in the fall."  These steps are especially important right now since many classrooms in Chance's school are large and combined, as the school is waiting for dividers to be put in.  Clarifying who just said what is a great help to implant users who may not hear a child from the back of the room.

I told the teachers about the FM system and showed them how it works and demonstrated how the microphone piece would be worn as they will be wearing a headset.  The teachers were very helpful and when I opened it up for questions, I was impressed with their concern about what they could do to make sure the kids were getting what they needed. For example, the chorus teacher asked about music and implants.  I told him that it usually takes kids with implants longer to learn the words and tune to a song and so he asked if it would help if he sent the songs home that they would be working on.  I told him that would be very helpful and today he sent me an email listing the songs they would be working on for the next bit and the words.  I am very grateful for that.

I told the teachers that they did not need to be afraid to teach these boys, that they had been in school for several years in regular classrooms and just taking a few steps would make all of the difference.  I also told them that we as parents were more than willing to talk to teachers about questions or work with them to solve any problems that may arise.  I feel good about the meeting and feel that the teachers want to help these kids with implants succeed.

So after the afternoon meeting with the teachers, I went home and Chance and I went over the FM system and how Chance would give the headset to each teacher and told him he would need to remember to get the headset from each teacher as he moved from class to class.  Then the next morning, I went to Chance's first class with him to help him get comfortable with the FM system and to make sure that it worked like it should.  It actually didn't work like it should much to my consternation.  I ended up taking it home and finally realized that one part of it was not charged all of the way.  This little FM system needs LOTS AND LOTS  of time to charge we have realized.  It needs to charge all night and then some so we have to get Chance in the habit of putting it right onto the charger as soon as he gets home from school.

The next day I headed back to the school and helped Chance set up the system and he  said that it is helping him to hear better in class.  Except P.E.  First of all, it is hard to run around while wearing the equivilant to a wide cell phone hooked onto your pants, and number two, the gym is just one huge spot for noise to bounce up down around and through. I don't think the FM system would do much good in there.  But Chance is used to PE class, he watches the other kids and the teachers try to make sure they give instrucions on how to play games etc. before all of the kids are running around the gym making all kinds of noise with both their voices and their bodies:)

Reflections at a Time of Triumph

I met with the academic principal of Chance's school this week and we talked about Chance's test scores from the end of last year. Chance scored as a 4th grader heading for 5th grade although technically on paper he is in 4th grade this year.

Chance learned to hear again twice during his younger years. He got hearing aids at age 3 and learned to hear and respond using those. Then, three days before his 6th birthday, he received his first implant. Six months later he received his second implant and so he learned to hear again using implants.

Due to the changing in his hearing devices and his late diagnosis of severe to profound hearing loss, Chance is a grade behind the other kids his chronological age. He did not repeat a grade, but had a year in between kindergarten and first grade where he was in a class of deaf children who built vocabulary and other things to get them ready to mainstream in a regular classroom as opposed to a School for the Deaf classroom.  It was the right thing to do at the time and we have never questioned the decision.

Chance's only delay has always been in language and things relating to hearing. He has been closing the gap in his language delay and last year I home schooled him and we were able to work one on one in language arts.  Chance was a joy to teach with a drive to learn and a quest to do his best in all he did.  As I taught Chance,  he was working at a 4th grade level last year and we realized that Chance had developed academically to the point where he was level with his peers that were his age and could possibly now go into 5th grade.  So we had him tested at the end of last year and he tested as a child who was LEAVING 4th grade not entering into 4th grade.  We realized that this was his shot to catch up to his peers who were entering 5th grade if ever there was a chance.

When we started this journey, it was not important to us that Chance be in the same grade as his peers his age.  We only wanted what was best for Chance and after learning to hear again twice,  it was best for him to have that extra year to learn vocabulary and get help with language.  Some parents of deaf kids were really bothered by the prospect of their child being a grade behind their peers their same age.  We knew that Chance needed that extra year.

Now the testing has shown that Chance is ready for 5th grade.  I get teary eyed thinking about that.

It is hard to adequately explain to someone who has not experienced it just what has gone into the past several years since we  found out that Chance was deaf.  The unknowing, the long road to get him what he needed and the uncertainty.  When we first found out Chance was deaf, no one dared tell us anything concrete about his future.  "How well would he be able to hear with hearing aids?"  They didn't know.

We sat through several years of IEP meetings (Individualized Education Plan) where Chance tested at least 2 years behind his peers his age in language.  That was to be expected we were told.  Chance's first goal in preschool was to respond and turn when his name was called by the teacher.

We went through years of weekly therapy where we were taught how to help Chance develop language.  We went to seminars,  read books and talked to other parents of deaf children.  We spent 6 years of our lives engaged to a great degree in deaf related activities.

I stayed up late nights, after the kids finally went to bed, searching the internet for books that would inspire Chance to want to read, as when he first learned, he got easily frustrated.  In the past, deaf kids have notoriously had difficulty in reading past a certain point.  I did not want that for Chance.  I remember sitting with him many nights as he became frustrated with reading and I would work out deals with him such as he read one page and I read the next page.  Chance went into a reading recovery program and I sat with him each night as he read the assigned books and attended the class once a week with Chance where I learned ways to help him with his reading.  I volunteered in Chance's classroom each year and watched to see how he was doing.  I kept up a dialogue with his teachers and we worked as a team to help Chance succeed.

We maxed out on the benefit of hearing aids and looked into implants.  Professionals thought the implants would help Chance but no one could tell us to what degree.  One medical intern told me the night before the surgery of the second implant not to expect too much.  Hah!  What did he know?

Chance learned to hear again with implants and we did more language therapy and learned how to help Chance basically learn to hear with the implants.   I had a box in the pantry dedicated to Chance and helping him learn to hear.  Just little things like magnets, a white board and various other things to make learning language a little fun.

Chance continued to close the gap between where his peers were and where he was in language.  And now,  4 years after getting the second implant,  the academic principal at his charter school has looked over the testing with other school officials and deemed that Chance can move up to 5th grade.  He starts officially tomorrow.  Chance has not only overcome his language obstacles but caught up to his hearing peers in many ways.  He is amazing and few people will ever realize just what it took for him to get here.  He is incredible and has been the recipient of nothing less than a true miracle in his life.  We have prayed and sought guidance from a power higher than ours to help guide us in our journey with Chance.  We know that those prayers have been heard and Chance has been watched over. I believe that our prayers are always heard,  though they are not always answered the way we think they should be.  We have had many  bumps in our journey where the way we thought things should work out, the way it seemed to make sense for things to work out, didn't happen and we had to change course. 

We'll be watching to ensure that Chance is ready and thriving in 5th grade.  It will be a change for him and he may have some things he needs to work on, but he has reached his goal. He has been telling us for the past while that he wanted to be in 5th grade like his friends his age.  It did not bother him until fairly recently that he was a grade behind.  He has worked hard and pushed himself and now here he is where he wanted to be.   Like I said, we will be watching and helping him to make sure that he is doing well in 5th grade.

I am emotional when I think about it.  We have reached a milestone in our years-long journey for Chance to hear.  There are many years left to go, but today we celebrate that years of effort by all of us have yielded what can only be termed a miracle.  A miracle that was helped along by dedicated teachers,  professionals in audiology, us as his parents, Chance himself and most notably by our Father in Heaven.   

One thing leads to another....

It all started with a decision to go look at the just-beginning-to-emerge fall foliage in the mountains.  That led us to a roaring little stream where many people stood on a bridge watching as a  garter snake tried to cross over to the other side.  That led to Chance and his brother feeling sorry for the snake and getting a large branch to aid the snake in getting across so that he wouldn't drown.

Which led to a nice doctor who had been watching the snake and then the boys walking over and kindly explaining that the plants they were standing in to rescue the snake were stinging nettle.   Stinging nettle is a little rascal of a plant that lives in our mountains and does pretty much what it's name implies.  It stings.

Chance and his brother were rubbing their legs when they climbed up the bank of the stream.  As the doctor good naturedly said,  "It's a lesson in nature!" 

Thankfully, the boys did not get that much contact with the stinging nettle. Just a little brush on a small part of their legs.  It could have been so much worse.

I explained to Chance what the doctor had said since Chance had been busy sitting on the path rubbing his legs while the doctor  knelt down to tell the boys that those plants by the streams edge were stinging nettle.

"Really?"  Chance asked.

"That is why your leg is annoying you."  I explained.

"Oh!"  Chance said his eyes getting big.

For the rest of our walk along the trails, Chance would point out various plants and ask,"Is that stinging nettle?"  The stinging nettle had been mixed in with other plants at the streams edge so Chance didn't get a good look at what exactly it looked like.   We tried to show him some so he would know what to avoid in the future but we couldn't find anymore as we hiked down the trail.
You know, I think that doctor was right.  This HAS been a lesson in nature that the boys won't soon forget.  Now we just have to let Chance know what stinging nettle actually looks like so he can avoid it in the future.

Chance starts a new school

Chance is attending a new charter school this year near our home. Due to the fact that it is not wired for FM systems, and the fact that the kids move from room to room for each class, Chance is going to get an opportunity to be learn to advocate for himself. Chance will be wearing an FM system starting next week, but he still will have to let teachers know if he is not hearing what is going on.

During the back to school open house, we got to go around and meet all of the different teachers. We told them a bit about implants, and also what Chance would need such as sitting near the front when there are many kids and being close to the teacher when the class goes outside. We have not experienced an FM system before, so we'll see how well it helps Chance in school. The history teacher told Chance just to get up and move his chair to wherever he needed to in the room if he could not hear what was going on. I like that. Chance can just move himself to where he needs to be if he can't hear.

Each child has a mentor teacher that they can go to if they have questions or have a problem. Chance's mentor teacher is the art teacher. And he wears a hearing aid. I thought that was brilliant of the school to hook Chance up with a teacher who wears a hearing aid and would thus have an understanding of what it is like to not be able to hear things. Especially in the lunchroom and during assemblies.

Chance has been in school for 3 days now and I asked him if he was hearing alright in class. He said yes, but there was one class he could not hear the teacher sometimes. I asked him what class that was and he said he couldn't remember. Hmmmmm. I told him to write down what class he could not hear in as well when it was over so he could remember and we could see if we could do something to help him hear better.

The FM system that he will be borrowing will be here on Wednesday. I am kind of excited to see how it works for Chance. Chance will have what they call a "loop" which will hang around his neck and hook onto his belt. It can go under his clothes so that it is not as visible. I don't know that Chance would be bothered by having the FM system be visible. The teacher will wear a little microphone that hooks onto their shirt that will transmit to the loop Chance is wearing.

It is all kind of exciting to see how Chance likes the FM system. Hopefully, it will work for him and he will like it.

On another note, I followed the boys as they rode their bikes to school to see the best route to take and see how long it takes them to make the trip. At one point on the way home, the boys veered off and crossed the street. I honked the horn of the van to get their attention so that I could talk to them and remind them that we were timing how long it takes to ride to and from school so we shouldn't make any diversions. Between the road noise, the fact that I was behind him and Chance had a bike helmet on, he did not respond to the horn.
I thought, "Chance is not going to hear if a car behind him honks? Are you serious?" There is one stretch of road that has a really narrow shoulder that the boys ride on for several yards. I don't like the fact that Chance did not seem to hear me honking. What if a car behind him honks at him and he does not hear it?

I will be testing out how well Chance hears a horn from behind during the next week. I want to know if this was a one time incident, or if Chance does not hear horns coming up behind him very well. I think that without the bike helmet, he would probably hear better, but the helmet protects him in case he falls. I'll be doing some investigating to see what Chance hears this week.

Adorable...

Chance's vocabulary is expanding and he is trying out new words in sentences on a regular basis. Sometimes he uses the words just right and sometimes it is not usually a way the word would normally be used, but he is learning more all the time. One episode of Chance using a "new to him" word occurred this past week when Chance exclaimed:

"I found the most ADORABLE shoes that I want for my play shoes!" Chance told his dad as he walked into the kitchen.
Chance's dad was in the kitchen making dinner and Chance was expressing his desire to own above shoes while reaching for some food.
With a matter of fact voice, Chances dad said, "Boys don't usually use the word adorable to describe things. Mom would, but boys usually don't use adorable. They may say something like awesome shoes, or cool shoes instead."
Chance said,"Really?" Then just shook his head as if to say OK and walked off with his dinner.
Chance's brother came up into the kitchen where his dad was cooking and said in a low voice,"I'm glad you told him that dad because boys really don't use the word adorable."

Chance may always miss this....

Chance's brother had a late, late birthday party where he took several friends and his brother Chance to a minor league baseball game.

The boys all went down on the field with Chance's brother while the stadium sang a birthday salute. Chance had his sunglasses confiscated by the owl mascot who just couldn't quite get the sunglasses to fit over his eyes which were as Chance put it,"huge!"

A good time was also had by all as they tried to catch foul balls in a field behind the first-base line.

On the way home, the boys all sang to the radio. As each song would begin, the boys would hear just one or two notes and then break into song in unison. But not Chance.

Chance would look around like,"How do they all know what to sing?"

Even after notes 6,7, 8, and 9, Chance wasn't identifying the songs. This may always be a struggle for Chance. He does not catch onto songs as soon as people with out implants, and it takes him more time to identify what song comes on. He loves music and he does learn the words after time. His chorus teacher said that he had good rhythm and she pointed out that not all of her kids with normal hearing had that.

This is not a huge tragedy. Chance can hear so well, but he is deaf, and his hearing is not perfect. We certainly don't mind his music delay. He may though, especially as he gets older and music becomes more and more important to kids his age. I hope he does not let it bother him too much.

Maybe we'll have to teach him to say something like,"Hey, I may not know as many songs as well as you do, but I have learned to hear again after going deaf. I'm doing just fine!" He could even say something along the lines of,"My mother thinks I am fabulous even if I don't catch every song on the radio. She told me so:)

Chance and wake boarding

A few weeks ago, we had a big family outing at the lake with grandparents, cousins, and various aunts and uncles. One uncle generously brought his boat so that we could engage in water activities like water skiing, wake boarding and other various fun water sports.

Chance decided that he wanted to try wake boarding for the first time with his brother so our family headed out to the middle of the lake to give it a go. Since Chance does not wear his implants in the water and they were snuggled down in a bag on shore, he could not hear anything so his brother went first to show him how it was done.

Chance is a good learner by just observing, but even still, Chance's dad sat on the edge of the boat motioning and signing to Chance on how this activity was done. Chance nodded and got ready to succeed as his brother had done.

Chance was SO close to getting up several times, but like his mother, he didn't quite make it this time but is highly anticipating the opportunity to nail it next year:)

When we got to back to shore, Chance kept repeating a phrase that I did not understand.

Since Chance did not have his implants on, I had to wait a bit before I figured out what he was telling me since he would often say the phrase, and then turn his head so he could not see me asking "What?"

Finally, after looking around for Chance so we could walk up to the bathrooms which were located up the beach and through the parking lot, I asked Chance's dad if he knew what the phrase was that Chance kept repeating.

After repeating what Chance had said, Chance's dad smiled and said,"It means 'I am about to pee myself' in Spanish."

Really? We have taught our son to say I am going to pee myself?? Or should I say, ONE of us taught Chance how to say that? And rather loudly too, since Chance tends to talk louder when his implants are not on.

(Dad's claim of innocence: I had told a story where 'Me meo' is part of the punchline - I just had no idea he had retained the phrase.)

I looked up towards the bathrooms and saw Chance shimming over the sand to get to the bathrooms.

"Does Chance know exactly what he is saying?" I asked.

"I don't know." His dad replied.

Maybe we should clarify how to say "I need to use the bathroom," before Chance takes off his implants near water again :)

How Chance affects the tires we buy...

Apparently, it was time to buy some new tires for our van. We now know this because one of the front tires was punctured by something lying in the road in our neighborhood and so Chance's dad took it in to be replaced as the tear was not repairable.

While he was there, Chance's dad was shown where all the other tires were worn almost to the steel rims on the side facing the van that we don't usually see. Good thing we got that message now before we had a blow out or something.

Since this was a somewhat unexpected expense, we were going over the options of which tires would do the job well, with out breaking the budget.

We have been going to this tire place for a while and have found them to be very helpful and honest. Chance's dad was shown a set of tires and told that "they will do the job, but they are a different rubber that will generate more road noise in the van."

More road noise in the van? That could be a big deal for Chance. So, we opted for the tires that were $150.00 more to maintain a quieter ride. We figure Chance is worth it:)