~Evynn Reese~

My daughter, Evynn Reese was born on 11/1/2010. At 10 months old she was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss in both ears. This blog documents her journey to hear. It includes ups, downs, testing, hearing aids, cochlear implants, therapy, school and everything else going on in our crazy but wonderful life! Evynn is such a strong, incredible little girl and we are so very proud of her!







Wednesday, August 1, 2012

6 Months of Hearing!

On the 25th of July, Evy celebrated 6 months of hearing! I can't believe that the stress and anxiety of surgery and activation day was so long ago, time has really flown by. Thanks to Evy's hard work, our constant pushing and her school's dedication to helping Evy learn to speak, all of the pieces to this puzzle are finally starting to come together. I am just so thankful to be where we are at this point and I can't wait to watch it get even better!

 Starting in September, Evy will go to school 3 days a week from 8:30am to 12pm, which is a day more a week than Summer school. I am really anxious to see just how much her speech and language takes off after that! But for now we are just practicing a lot at home and with her teacher.

Lately we have been practicing the "ling sounds". The 6 "ling sounds" are different speech sounds that vary from low to high pitch. By having Evy repeat the sound, it helps us to know that Evy detects speech at all the levels, which are all necessary for learning proper speech and language. The ling sounds are:
ee (fEEt)
o (hOt)
oo (shOe)
s (Splash)
sh (fiSH)
m (Mama)

When her school told us that Evy was now doing this effortlessly, Kyle and I decided to try it at home. As you will see in the video, I have Evy sitting on my lap and I am saying the sound and expecting Evy to repeat it. I am bribing her with an M&M, that she will get after she's done repeating the 6 sounds. Apparently, I wasn't going fast enough. She wanted that candy NOW, and did not appreciate me keeping it from her!


Needless to say, Kyle and I couldn't help but laugh. But no matter how frustrated she may get with me, I won't ever stop pushing her to learn, even if it means I have to occasionally take a slap to the face! I think she will thank me for it someday :)