Our SHINING (Rock) Star!

As you all know (I think!), Luke has been going to Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) every Wednesday and Friday morning for his nursery class. Yesterday I got to join Luke and Dan there as it was a special day. After his class at CID Luke had his 18 month post cochlear implant mapping for audiology and speech evaluation at Children's Hospital. Typically the researcher is also there, but she was in Hawaii (poor, Ruth!). Anyhow, Dan and I were both a bit worried about how such a long day would affect Luke's test results, as CID runs from 9 - 12 and then his appointments began at 1 p.m. (they told us to be prepared to stay there for about 4 hours!) We must have forgotten that we were talking about our little rock star, because all he did was SHINE!

For all my SLP friends out there, Luke was given the PLS (Preschool Language Scale) and he did AMAZINGLY well!!! I will spare everyone all the standard scores and such and just tell you that on the Auditory Comprehension subtest he tested out at 3 years, 7 months and on the Expressive Communication he did even better at 3 years, 9 months!!! So basically, according to this test, normed on HEARING children, he is performing better than a 3 1/2 year old hearing child!!! She also conducted other tests, all of which he did amazing on as well (but I know others don't get as excited as I do about speech test scores!!!)

Anyhow, after the speech component was completed, we had about 30 minutes so we headed downstairs for a little ice cream treat. Then it was back upstairs and into the booth with our fabulous audiologists, Jamie and Jerricha! Luke once again put on a show. There was a little discrepancy from last time (in July) as he was performing about 5 - 10 decibels below where he previously was, so they changed his microphone (the magnet that is on his head) and sure enough, the scores went back up! He again is RECOGNIZING speech (and repeating it back to the audiologist!) at 20 dB...that is normal, people!!!
When all was said and done, we were heading out of Children's around 4:45 and Luke was already sleeping before we left the parking garage!!! What an awesome day yesterday!

You know, I often think back to the first time we were at Children's on February 28, 2007, just 2 weeks after Luke's birth when we found out of his severe to profound hearing loss. It was a day I will unfortunately never forget as one of the hardest I have had to face. I was grieving for my son and wishing that I could somehow take the deafness from Luke. Now I flash back to yesterday and remember the feelings of excitement and amazement. If only I knew then what I know now, that this diagnosis, the one that involved this word that was once a very hard word for Dan and I to even utter aloud (deaf!) has turned out to be a pretty cool thing. Luke is stronger for it, as is our entire family! We have always called Luke a rock star because of his love of music, but now I have no doubt in my mind that if he ever wants to be an actual "rock star" he will do nothing but shine!!!