3 posts tagged “hearing loss”
Now not everyone is happy with the treatment they receive from the NHS, but our family has had wonderful treatment ever since Ewan was diagnosed with a hearing loss. We have had free (at the point of use) appointments, free hearing aids, free moulds, free batteries and free access to the Teachers of the Deaf (even now that Ewan is home educated).
Stuart had a day off today because of car trouble and so he took Ewan to his yearly check up with the audiology department. He hasn't managed to take Ewan to many appointments because he is always working so it was lovely for Ewan to show Daddy how it all works. The Teacher of the Deaf (TOD) was there for him to meet and we always have a Paediatric Audiologist. They performed the usual hearing test and everything was the same. I am now long past the days when I went into the appointment hoping that it was all a big mistake and his hearing would be perfect! Then they take moulds and give us batteries and the tubing so that we can replace them as needed.
There is always time to discuss our concerns and to ask questions. This time, Stuart asked them about the problems we have been having with headphones and the telephone. The telephone doesn't go loud enough for him to hear it so he has to put the speaker on and hold the phone to his hearing aid. It makes it difficult for him to use the phone and he has no privacy which will become more and more of an issue. They gave us a magnet that we put on the phone so that it will transmit through his hearing aid - genius!
The headphones issue is a difficult one too. He has to take his hearing aids off to use headphones and then he has them so loud that everyone around him can hear everything he is listening to. No kidding, we can hear the story from his story tapes outside his headphones!! They have given us little shoes that sit on the bottom of his hearing aids and then the leads plug into his MP3. That way it plays right into his hearing aids. This is the most exciting development for us. It may not seem like much but he will be able to plug headphones into the computer and hear what is being said without us having to hear it in the next room! He will have better access to MP3 downloads like podcasts and story cds which is really exciting. The possibilities are endless!
I know it is not really free; we pay high taxes. However, if we were in an insurance based system, our insurance would not be paying for all this. We are incredibly grateful for all the help and assistance we have had over the last 8 years.
and it made me think of our little guy. I haven't updated recently on his progress, but there isn't much to report. Not that he isn't doing well, he is. Just that things don't change that much.
People see his hearing aids and often ask me how deaf he is. That is a really difficult question to answer. Ewan's hearing loss is between 50Db and 70Db depending on frequency. This means that he has a moderate loss. What this means for Ewan is that without his aids he will not hear people knocking at the door, ticking clocks, 5 words in a 10 word sentence, the phone even when it is held to his ear. With his aids he behaves like someone who has a mild loss. He will ask you to repeat yourself and will quite often misunderstand but other than that, he behaves in a fairly normal way.
Contrary to the experience of this lady, we have had all our appointments funded by the NHS. His hearing aids were funded from 2 years old and we have the assistance of a Teacher of the Deaf (TOD). In fact, when he was 2 we had health professionals coming at us from all directions. We have shed all of these as he has grown and now just rely on the Audiology department at the local hospital. He saw the same audiologist from 8 months old until he was 8 years old. The only change was that we moved house. I cannot describe how grateful we are for this level of service!
I was chatting to a friend yesterday who said that if she didn't know Ewan, then she wouldn't know he had a loss. His speech is good and he hears most things. We certainly forget all about it until we come across a hurdle. That is certainly down to having fabulous hearing aids and more support than we could ever use.
At nine years old his schooling is probably a little behind. I feel priviledged to be able to home educate him. It gives us the time to deal with difficult issues. What we are hitting up against now is spelling. Just as phonics didn't work for reading, that method doesn't work to help him spell either. Also there are still gaps in his language. We have had to approach spelling in the same way that we approached speech; word by word, letter by letter. It's painful, but it gets results. At the end of the day, a small price to pay for the priviledge of enjoying life with such a wonderful little boy.
We put in a whole lot of hard work in the beginning. We had lists of words to teach him and we worked and worked and worked. He cried, I cried and it was tough. We missed things. He got to 6 without knowing what a helicopter was called, but he is a clever little thing and he adapted. We recently changed hospitals and they were amazed at his speech. They figured he had been on some kind of intensive program. Actually he hadn't but his Teacher of the Deaf was brilliant and gave me a huge amount of help. Having a chatty sister just a year older helped too!
When we removed him from school, he was falling further and further behind. Phonics programs are great for some children but not if you are hearing impaired. He lost confidence and started to feel like everyone was laughing at him. Since he has been home, he has made rapid progress. His reading has taken off and he is interested in his studies. We read a book on birds this morning and he took it in and asked questions. A year ago, he would have lost interest quickly and been fidgety and difficult. A lot of that is his age, but I feel he is thriving in a safe environment.
Why am I telling you this? Because if I ever doubt that we are doing the right thing (and we have our critics), I look at him and I know we are right. It is hard work and my is he stubborn, but then if he is going to get on in this world with a disability, he needs to be stubborn,
Oh and he is handsome too!
