One of the first things Adriana's speech therapist suggested was visiting an audiologist. At our initial evaluation with the county office of education, they thought her hearing seemed fine, but the therapist wanted to be certain that Adriana really had her full range of hearing. The test was today, and I was nervous about how it would go. Would they require her to wear headphones? Would she cooperate? What if there were problems with her hearing? Wouldn't a good mother have noticed the problems and done something sooner? What if there was no problem with her hearing? At least a problem would give us some explanation for what was going on with her speech. Because seriously, the mom anxiety can pull me in every direction at once. Good results? Bad results? No results? ALL ARE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS.
The hearing test was today and it went fine. There were no headphones involved and Adriana was very cooperative. She and I went into a sound booth, and the audiologist sat just outside. Noises would come out of speakers on either side of the booth, and when Adriana turned toward the sound, a little box above the speaker would light up to show her the stuffed animal inside. Next the doctor spoke to Adriana quietly, asking her to point to one animal or another, and Adriana obliged nicely. Next, Adriana sat perfectly still while the doctor used some sort of tool to take measurements of her ears, though she usually struggles when the doctor wants to take a look inside her hears at checkups. Finally, we sat on the couch outside the sound booth, and Adriana was very still and quiet while a little tiny device was put into each ear, one after the other, to send some sort of vibrations to the cochlea that would be echoed back to the device, showing that everything was okay with Adriana's inner ear.
My only real concern about the whole audiologist experience now that it's over with? A couple of times Adriana would turn toward one of the speakers and be rewarded with the teddy bear playing the drum or dancing pink rabbit--and I hadn't heard any sound at all.
2 comments:
Certain high pitched sounds young people can hear but adults can't. Have you heard about the mosquito ringtones? Teens use them in class, and the teachers can't hear the phone ringing.
Glad to hear Adriana's hearing is good, though.
I have heard of the phones; actually, Brian reminded me of them when I told him about this. It's a very weird experience to know that there are things happening that I can't hear!
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