Water Prairie Chronicles Podcast

Show Notes:

Find the full directory at waterprairie.com/listen.

This is the second half of my recent conversation with Felicia Aquilo, the mother of two young boys who were born profoundly deaf. She and her husband, Steve, have faced the challenge of giving their boys the gift of sound; equipping them with cochlear implants, teaching them to speak as well as sign language, and helping them appreciate music and other sounds. Join us as we hear from Felicia about her journey, her sons’ progress, and her very real hopes for their futures.

This is part 2 of Felicia’s story. Be sure to catch the first part in Episode #48!

In part 1, Felicia shared her “facts” for the game of “2 Truths and a Lie.” Can you guess which statements Felicia shared were her truths and which was her lie? Post your best guess in the comments below. We’ll post the correct answer on Instagram @water.prairie next week so be sure to check and see if you were right.

2 Truths and a Lie:

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Music Used: “LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Welcome to the Water Prairie Chronicles, a podcast created to encourage and support parents of special needs children. I’m Tonya Wollum, and I’m glad you’re here. Today’s episode is the second part of an interview with Felicia Aquilo, the mother of two boys who were born profoundly deaf and now have cochlear implants.

I first met Felicia when I reached out to her through her Instagram account. She graciously accepted an invitation to share her personal story with you in this interview, and I think you’ll be encouraged by her story. If you miss part one of the interview, be sure to go back and listen to that, and I’ll put a link in the description below.

Now, let’s join in on the interview as Felicia shares her story, how the boys are adjusting to their implants, and how they’re learning to speak through both spoken and sign language.

I’m going to let them do whatever they want to do. Cause I’ve always told them, you know, you’re capable of doing whatever you want to do, but we’ll see.

Have the boys needed to have any type of therapy? Do they work with a speech language pathologist? Do they work with anyone special like that?

Yeah, so in the beginning, the first three years, they were set up, well, Silas was set up with a speech and language pathologist from the Help me Grow program.

It took me a little bit to get kind of set up with her the first time, but she was wonderful. She helped me through the whole process, got me hooked up with, you know, other people, other families going through the situation that I was, and just kind of giving me ideas for language activities and ways to get the boys talking and things like that because it’s actually virtual.

They don’t come to your house anymore, so, okay. It was obviously, I’m not gonna get my, my 10 month old up on the computer and participate in language activities. So I always tell anybody that asks me that your speech, especially when they’re young, like 1, 2, 3, even four when they’re that young, speech pathology appointments, speech therapy appointments, audio, verbal therapy appointments, they’re for the parent to learn how to do the activities at home.

Because at home it’s not gonna, the magic isn’t happening during the 30 minute session once a week. It’s at home all the other times. So it was, it was really good to be able to learn from her. And then after Silas also had a speech therapist and an audio verbal therapist throughout that time too. So there was a total of three on top of his audiologist and ENT.

Speech therapy appointments … they're for the parent to learn how to do the activities at home. The magic isn't happening during the 30-minute session once a week. It's at home all the other times!
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So there was a lot of professionals helping us here. Yeah. And now he is actually in an oral preschool for deaf children in our area. Um, they’re the closest school that we have for deaf kids for that. Actually the deaf culture, ASL deaf school is two hours away. So right now, that’s not really an option for us.

So we chose to go to this program. He’s doing amazing. He gets a lot of speech therapy, audio, verbal therapy, and he has a teacher of the deaf, so they do wonderful with him. And then Isaiah, we were able to have the same kind of set up that Silas had, although this time we added a deaf mentor to the mix.

So the deaf mentor, what role were they playing?

So our deaf mentor, she basically, teaches me about her life experiences. She helps me with the language. Okay. So I have somebody to practice with, um, ways to get the boys signing, um, ways to get our family involved with signing. She teaches me basically experiences that she went through and deaf culture and deaf community, all of those things, but experiences that she’s had that could better prepare me to understand situations that the boys may or may not go through.

But things that I, as a hearing person, wouldn’t necessarily get moving forward. It’s a hard pill to swallow when you have to think about the fact that they are living a completely different life than what you are used to. So having a deaf adult to help them keep their deaf identity and to find their deaf identity, even if that’s not me as their mom.

I feel that they need that person in their life.

That’s a fantastic tool for you to have that resource there and to have a connection. I mean, not just to meet with them once, but to have someone in that mentoring role. I wasn’t aware that was an option.

This time around, it was offered through our Help Me Grow program, our Ohio Help Me Grow program.

But there are, in every state, there are places that you can find deaf mentor help.

So a parent that’s listening, say from Tennessee, where would they go to find that type of contact?

Tennessee Hands and Voices would probably have, uh, I know that every state has a Hands and Voices program, uh, and they have a Facebook page. So that would be my first place to look. And then other place would be to search on Instagram or um, another Facebook outlet to try to find something like that.

So they would just, if they searched Hands and Voices, they would find it for each state?

Most likely find them, find one for their estate. Yes.

Okay. Do you know if there’s a national organization?

I believe.

So. If we’re able to find that, we’ll put that in the notes as well for those that are listening, just to get ’em started. At least with that, cuz this is helpful information because you had to find it yourself. But if we can pass this on to others, it’s gonna get them started with that.

But love the idea of having a mentor. I think that’s fantastic.

It’s definitely, I wish I would’ve had one with Silas.

Yeah. Cuz it’s, I mean, to try to simulate what they, what their life is for you yourself, you’re bringing in a history of hearing. You know what? You may see something, even if you can’t hear at that moment, you know what’s happening. Because that’s always been part of what, what you’ve experienced. I really like that.

Uh, you’re talking about the batteries, so I’m, how often do you have to change the batteries or are they rechargeable where they last for a long time?

So Silas used to wear what’s called a Canzo processor, and it is an off the ear option because he really disliked his hearing aids.

So we knew that, um, something off the ear might be a better situation for him. In those original canzo processors, it was disposable batteries that would only give us about 22 to 24 hours of sound. So I was changing them quite often.

Once a day.

Yeah. I was changing them quite well. It seemed like every two, because he wasn’t wearing them dur during the time that he slept. Yeah. So it was about every two days we were changing them and that could get quite expensive. Um, and then when Isaiah was born and he got implanted, we thought that he would love the canzos as well. However, they came out with what’s called the Canzo two processors. And it is a, New and improved version of the canzo processors.

However, we found it to be quite annoying , so we, yeah, we switched them both to the N seven processors, which is what you see on them now, the over the ear processors and they have both rechargeable batteries and disposable battery options. So we try to use the rechargeable as much as possible, but we keep a lot of disposable batteries on hand for emergencies.

Anytime we have a couple extra dollars, it’s like, let’s get batteries. .

You had said that you originally were thought that you would wait and make this decision after Silas could tell you whether he wanted to or not. But that changed because of, of what you were learning. How do you involve the boys now and I’d say Silas more than Isaiah, just because of their age, um, and decisions that are happening and just even talking about the cochlear implants?

Well, one of the things, the big things that he’s learning in his program that he’s in and something that we work on really heavily at home is self-advocacy. So he will tell me if something is wrong with his processors or if he needs, uh, hearing break, if he needs to take them off.

If he doesn’t wanna wear them, cuz he has a headache. Um, if any of those things he has to, it’s his job to tell me. As far as caring for them, he will at nighttime go and plug them in at his, um, charging station, like plug the batteries in. And he’ll put them in the, um, the dry kit most nights. Some nights we forget, but we have what’s called a dry kit where they, it sucks all the moisture out of them to give them a longer life.

Okay. Um, so he does that. But as far as other things, I mean, he does. full control over when and where he wears them and how, like his method of communication. So that’s pretty much the biggest decision, you know, and he, at school, he’ll tell them when his battery dies or something along those lines too.

Right. Are, are many of the other children in his school also wearing implants?

I believe there’s 11 of them right now and eight of them have devices and the other ones are what you would call like typical language models. So they model average language for their age group. Now he’s, he’s at, uh, a different school now where they’re addressing his, his, his deafness.

Um, will you keep him there or do you think he’ll move to the local school eventually?

So he’s actually on track. They, there’s only three years of this oral preschool and then they mainstream them into a normal, mainstream your district, um, kindergarten program. We actually just had his parent teacher conference, and it was all about the transition from kindergarten or from preschool to kindergarten, and I was slightly freaking out because he’s no longer going to be in his little bubble of peers just like him with Teacher of the Deaf and a program that was literally designed for kids like him.

Like they’re not going to have that anymore. So the whole thought of transferring him out of this where the teachers may not know exactly how to deal with devices or not understand, you know, his, his needs in the classroom as far as, you know, making sure they’re looking directly at him when they’re talking or using their, his microphone that’s around their neck so it gets Bluetooth directly into his pressors.

Like it’s, it’s a lot and it’s very scary to know that I’m going to have to make sure that all these things are happening. So that he has the ability to learn and to understand and, and comprehend and be included in what’s happening in his classroom.

You mentioned earlier, ASL. So the boys are, so they have the cochlear implants. They’re hearing sound, Silas is in a school where they do speak. So he’s getting the speech therapy. But you’re also working with ASL, correct?

Yes. I am learning sign language very slowly, but consistently. Every day we work on more, um, we implement new words. I just actually finished ASL at one of our local colleges.

Um, I haven’t started this semester yet just because of certain situations with transportation and getting there and babysitters and all of that, but making sure that the boys have ASL, which is their most natural language. The easiest language that comes to them is very important to us because I don’t, like I said, I don’t make them wear their processors if they don’t choose to, and if they’re getting a bath or getting going to bed or we’re out and about and they decide that they, um, don’t wanna be wearing their processors anymore.

I need a way to communicate with them and I’m not going to put the responsibility of them reading my lips on my five and three year old. I don’t feel like that’s, that’s right. They need a way to be understood and and included and, and get conversation from, especially their mom that is not pressure on them to be doing it all.

So that’s why I feel that having ASL not only to fall back on, but to have for their future is so important. You know, in 10 years they could decide that they don’t wanna wear their processors anymore and take them off. And if they didn’t have sign language, then what? Like if we didn’t know sign if. If they didn’t know, if I didn’t know, it would just, I never want my kids to feel like they can’t communicate, especially with their family.

So that’s why we chose to do both.

Is your husband learning as well?

He is, yes. And my parents, my parents are. I’m not biased or anything, but I, they have the best grandparents ever.

As every child should. But good. I’m glad you have that support as well. So you’re learning it. Is Silas’s school, the preschool that he is in, do they work with ASL as well?

No, that is just a strictly oral, yeah, an oral school there. Like I said, there is a, um, a deaf school two hours away, and that’s something that we’ve considered to, like, if he decides if he wants to go to a deaf school where they use asl, that is something that we’re not going to tell him.

Like, no, you can’t do that. You’re not gonna do that. Right. We will make this, we’ll make it happen however we have to make it happen. Whether that’s Steve having to transfer and get another job, or however, I never wanna tell my kids that they can’t go to a certain school because of the way they communicate.

Unfortunately, there are no programs close to us that are strictly asl, so it would have to be a pretty good commute or a different situation for that to happen.

Have they told you as, because the speech that the boys are hearing, are they hearing clearly all the words that are being spoken to them, or is it certain sounds that they’re hearing?

They don’t hear like hearing people hear. So basically it’s just a tool to access sound and nothing that they’re hearing is exactly like we hear, if that makes sense. So they have to learn how to recognize relevant sound and pick out what is meaningful sound. So I’m sure you’ve heard of incidental learning where something is just picked up because it just happens in the background and they, they learn it. Well kids with cochlear implants, everything has to be taught to them intentionally. Um, so they have to be taught what a, a dog sounds like when they bark, or the door slamming. What that sounds like. Um, what the car door slamming is, uh, a, a horn beeping. So everything is very intentional and the amount of language that they need is insane.

Teach with Intention!!!
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Like I am constantly, I narrate my day all day long because they need all of that language. So I talk to myself on a regular basis, just going through my motions because they need all of those words to be able to understand and recognize. And just because they’re hearing the words or the sounds and they’re hearing those words, does not mean that they’re understanding or comprehending what’s going on.

We had talked a little bit too about, um, so we’ve got the, the ASL there. Will the boys once they’re in regular school, will they have an ASL interpreter for their classroom? Will they always use the voice, the sp, the microphone?

That’s something that I am going to see if Silas wants when he goes to school. It might not be in kindergarten, but first, second, third grade, I’m going to ask him like, do you want an ASL interpreter?

And that is something that I’ll definitely have to advocate for, um, because it’s not just something that’s easily given because they, a lot of times they don’t wanna fork out the extra, the money to pay an interpreter, but it’s their job to do that. So if, if it’s something that he thinks is necessary or I think is necessary for his learning, I’m a hundred percent going to be that annoying mom. Like bring an interpreter into his classroom and that’s what’s gonna happen. So.

When you get a chance, listen to, there was a mother daughter that I interviewed. Um, Heather is the daughter. And, um, it was, it was during, during season one. Heather talks about being in, I dunno if it was middle school or high school, when she “fired” her interpreter because she realized that it was, not a good fit to have someone in there and she did better talking to her friends and getting their notes.

Um, but it might, it might give you, um, some ideas too of what’s, what’s down, down the road. Some of the Yeah. The things to ask, even when you’re going into these,

That’s where we’re at. Just trying to see what works for us and going with the flow and, you know, residential is not something that I would love to do because it’s so far away.

Um, which is why I would want to move if possible. , but nothing is off the table. Even homeschooling, we’ve discussed homeschooling before and bringing in, you know, a deaf mentor to do that aspect of it. Just because we wanted to homeschool before we even knew they were deaf. And now, right now in this situation, he’s thriving in his school that he’s in, but it’s never off the table.

You know, we’re gonna reevaluate the situation as often as we need to, to know what’s the best fit for him or both of them really. .

Right, and today there’s so many different options because. If, if you do homeschool, there’s other ways to get those services, even if you’re homeschooling. So it’s not a yes or no. It has to be one or the other. It can be a combination of things too. So just finding those, those resources to, to know how you’re going. Um, I do wanna, I know we’re getting close to when we need to finish here, but I did wanna get into how are you navigating the different opinions, and perspectives within the deaf community regarding the cochlear implants?

In the beginning, I found it very hard to hear the differing opinions. So if somebody, The negative comments that I was getting because the boys were, or Silas was already implanted, or, um, someone who didn’t necessarily believe in cochlear implants or believed that they should have the opinion, have the decision to make themselves when they’re older.

Um, it got to me a lot in the beginning. It was, it was very hard. Yeah. Because before I saw how wonderful everything was and how great it was going to be, and how much he loved his relationship with sound, I was questioning. , am I making the right decisions? Did I do the right thing? Is this the right, you know, path for us?

But as time went on and I got more confident in my situation, those comments, maybe I just don’t see them as often because I don’t, I’m like, I don’t care anymore. But they seem to be fewer and far between and not as often. And I’m, I’m very, I’m 110% confident in the decision that we made in the route we’re taking, because I know that in the future, My, my boys have the, the opportunity to develop spoken language.

I don’t know if we talked about this or not, but the earlier a child is implanted, the better the statistics show, the better the chances they have of developing spoken language the later they wait. , the harder it is for them to develop spoken language, which is why we decided after all to do it earlier rather than wait until later.

So at this point, giving them access to develop spoken language and giving them access to ASL when they turn 13, 14, 15 years old, they have a decision that they can make because they have both fully developed languages. That’s my thought process. , I’m sticking to it. That’s, you know what I mean? Like .

Well, I think you’re giving them the best of both worlds because they have a choice now.

They. If you had only done one or the other, there’s no choice yet because you’ve kept one choice from ever being entertained.

And they could have, they could have been implanted at a later age. But that’s not, it’s not saying that they would’ve been able to develop fully spoken, like to be able to speak. Know what I mean? Like it’s, it’s emotional for me, but , I, I, as time went on, I was able to better deal with, I was better equipped to deal with the negative comments and honestly, I don’t see them as much anymore. Um, and that’s, I’ll block people. Like if you’re not gonna have anything nice to say, if you don’t wanna hear differing opinions.

If you can’t accept differing opinions, like, I don’t need you in my space. Um, right. And that was hard for me to do in the beginning, but now it is. It’s okay.

What advice would you give to other parents of deaf children that are considering the cochlear implant surgery?

I think that the biggest thing is talking to as many people as you possibly can.

Um, online and in person, finding as many people that you can that have been there, that have walked this path, that have implanted their kids, that have had implants themselves, that don’t believe in implants. The doctors, the, the audiologists, get all of the information that you possibly can because the route that I’m taking might not be the route for you, but you can make an educated decision for yourself and for your family if you have all of the information and not just pieces and bits and pieces that somebody’s given you. You need all of it.

Let’s see. Is there anything else that I haven’t asked you that I, that I should have asked or that you wanted to share?

I just, I think that, um, with a better understanding of cochlear implants and how cochlear implants work, a hearing person can better support somebody in this situation.

You know, ask them their preferred method of communication. Um, remember that when you’re talking to a deaf person, even with or without cochlear implants, to speak to them. Look at while you’re looking at them so they can see your mouth. Um, remember that background noise really affects the way that they perceive noise, the way they hear noise so if they don’t hear you, don’t jump to conclusions like they’re ignoring you because that’s not the way it works. Um, just a better understanding. And I was even, you know, in the beginning, I, my boys were the first, well, Silas was the first deaf person that I had ever met. Um, and I did not know a thing about hearing loss, cochlear implants, hearing aids, deaf community, deaf culture, sign language, even.

So just ha helping to spread awareness and learning about what all of this means is just it. It makes for a better world for my children to live in. So that’s why I’m doing this.

This is what I really appreciate what I see on your post. They’re, um, you, you’ve been really honest about some of the posts that you’ve had are, you know, it is just, just not a, not a good day.

But I think it’s good for people to see that you’re a typical mom with typical kids. Not everybody has a good day.

Felicia, thank you for taking some time to share with us your journey, how it’s starting here. You got a lot of years ahead of you here, some exciting time to figure out who your sons are going to become as, as they grow up.

But it’s, it, it’s fun hearing some of your stories here. Um, some of them were a little bit harder for you, but hopefully you’re gonna make it easier for the next group by hearing what, what you’ve shared with us. So, so thank thank you for being open and honest with us today about this.

Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun.

This podcast is made possible by support from our listeners. If you wanna help offset the cost of producing the Water Prairie Chronicles, become a supporter at buymeacoffee.com/waterprairie.

You’ve been listening to The Water Prairie Chronicles, a podcast created to encourage and support parents of special needs children.

If you found value in this episode, hit the like button and subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes of the podcast. I’m glad you were able to join us today, and I hope to see you back next week for another episode of the Water Prairie Chronicles.

Felicia Aquilo is the proud mother of Silas and Isaiah, 2 boys who were born profoundly deaf and have received bilateral cochlear implants. Felicia and her husband, Steve, are raising the boys by teaching them to speak and to use sign language. They are hearing parents, but they are doing an awesome job of learning the skills they need to make communication easy for their sons! Felicia is active on Instagram and can be found @feliciaaquilo.

The post Episode #49: Giving Our Sons the Gift of Sound (Part 2): Raising Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants appeared first on Water Prairie.

Meet Felicia Aquilo, a mother of two boys who were born profoundly deaf. With loving guidance and unwavering support, Felicia and her husband embarked on an amazing journey to bring their boys the gift of sound through cochlear implants. What started out as an uphill battle is now a turning point - Felicia's sons are thriving in their new life with sound, learning to speak, and harnessing the power of both spoken and sign language. In this exclusive interview, Felicia shares her story, how the boys are adjusting to the new technology, and how music has become a source of joy for her family.

Find the full directory at waterprairie.com/listen.

Meet Felicia Aquilo, a mother of two boys who were born profoundly deaf. With loving guidance and unwavering support, Felicia and her husband embarked on an amazing journey to bring their boys the gift of sound through cochlear implants. What started out as an uphill battle is now a turning point – Felicia’s sons are thriving in their new life with sound, learning to speak, and harnessing the power of both spoken and sign language. In this exclusive interview, Felicia shares her story, how the boys are adjusting to the new technology, and how music has become a source of joy for her family.

This is part 1 of Felicia’s story. Don’t miss part 2 coming out next week!

Can you guess which statements Felicia shared were her truths and which was her lie? Post your best guess at https://instagram.com/water.prairie/. We’ll post the correct answer on Instagram a week after the part 2 episode posts so be sure to check back later to see if you were right.

2 Truths and a Lie

During our Season 2 episodes, we’ll be asking each guest to share “2 Truths and a Lie” about themselves as a fun way to get to know our guests. We’ve decided not to give the answer right away so our listeners can try to guess the true answers. In the comments section for this video, add your thoughts to which of Lenora’s answers were true and which was the lie. Here are the answers she gave us during the interview:

*** We’ll post the answer on our Instagram account a week after this video posts so go there and check to see if you got it right!

Connect with Us: https://linktr.ee/waterprairie

Support this channel: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/waterprairie

Music Used: “LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Welcome to the Water Prairie Chronicles. A podcast created to encourage and support parents of special needs children. I’m Tonya Wollum, and I’m glad you’re with us today.

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Felicia Aquilo, a mother of two boys who were born deaf. After much research, Felicia and her husband embarked on an amazing journey to bring their boys the gift of sound through cochlear implants.

This is part one of my interview with Felicia, and I encourage you to make sure to listen to part two next week to hear the full story of how Felicia is actively involved in helping her sons communicate, how they’re adjusting to their cochlear implants, and how music has become a part of their lives.

Welcome back to the Water Prairie Chronicles. Everyone, we appreciate you being with us today, and I have a special guest with us. This is Felicia Aquilo. Felicia, I found on Instagram. I’m following her and enjoying what she shares about her family, and some of her experiences, and we’re gonna talk about some of that in the interview today. Felicia, I’d like for you to introduce yourself to us and then we can get into a little more detail about what I wanna talk about, but I don’t wanna release all the information upfront.

Thank you, Tonya. My name is Felicia Aquilo. I am the mom of two young boys who both happen to be deaf. They both have bilateral cochlear implants, so they have access to sound. It’s been a rollercoaster. So many crazy things happen in the past five years. My oldest is five, my youngest is almost two. So yeah, it’s just been a very exciting, unexpected experience.

So this is season two. We’ve started doing a different type of getting-to-know-you. So those that are listening, if you didn’t hear last week’s episode, we are now doing “Two Truths and a Lie” instead of our Speed Round of 10 questions. So I’ve asked Felicia to think of two things to share with us that are true and one that is not true.

She’s gonna mix them up so you don’t know which is which. And we’ll be posting this on Instagram and on Twitter so that you can post your guesses of what you think the answer might be. And if you’re watching this on YouTube, you can post it in the comments below as well. And in about a week, we will share with you what the answer is on Instagram so you can see if you are right or not.

So, Felicia, what are your two truths and a lie?

Well, number one, I love cooking and at one point in my life I wished I could be on Master Chef or own a restaurant. . Uh, number two is I really enjoy, um, training and preparing for running marathons like five Ks. And number three is I’ve known how to snow ski since I was two years old.

So let’s go back to the beginning. The beginning of when you first had your oldest child, Silas. When did you find out that he was deaf?

So I found out that Silas was deaf. Rewind a little bit. Um, when he was born, it was a perfect pregnancy, completely typical, nothing out of the ordinary. I thought I was, was prepared for anything and everything that could possibly happen.

And he was born, I had this perfect new baby and within 24 hours we have the newborn hearing screening. So they took him back for that. I wasn’t expecting anything and, they said that he had failed it, which I hate that, that terminology because there’s no pass or fail for a hearing screening. It’s just what happened, you know?

Um, They told me that he had failed the hearing screening, but not to worry because it was probably just fluid, the amniotic fluid, and it’ll go away. So at that point, I really didn’t, uh, fully process. I had just had a baby. I was trying to wrap my head around everything and they, the next day they took him back again for the same test, and he, the same thing happened.

It was the same results that he had the first time. So that’s when they were like, we’re going to refer you to an audiologist and see what happens.

So that was just, just immediately then with that. And what was the diagnosis that they found out?

So two months later we went to the audiologist appointment.

He had what’s called an A B R. It’s an audio brainstem response test. And at that point, they told me that he was profoundly deaf. There was no response to any of the frequencies that they had tested. Um, and it was sensorineural meaning that it was not going to improve at all.

Okay. That’s tough cause you’re not ready for that when you’re first coming in. Did the doctor give you any contacts in your community or anything to help you kind of know what to do next?

So after, when he was a newborn, right after, uh, we got home from the hospital when he was born, there was really nothing except for the reference for the audiologist, I guess is the right word.

There was nothing other than that. So after we went to the audiologist, when she said, I’m sorry, your son is deaf, it was basically follow up with, um, another audiologist. We’re gonna start the process for hearing aids. This is what’s going to happen. . So I was like, okay, well wait a second. Let’s take a step back.

You just told me my son is deaf and now I have to leave and I am completely unprepared for what comes next.

Right, right. So, so at that young, do they do hearing aids right away?

They will. So they’ll, uh, early intervention will start. Basically, as soon as they get the hearing test done and all the testing, like the prerequisites for the hearing aids. Silas was, he finally got his hearing aids at about seven months.

And that’s because I took forever to really process the information and come to terms with it. In the beginning, I didn’t wanna believe it, so I got opinion after opinion. Um, trying to find different types of, you know, the solution. I, I didn’t know anything about being deaf or deafness or childhood deafness or deaf culture or the deaf community, so it was trying to figure out a way to make this not my reality when in turn that wasn’t what I needed to be doing at all.

Was he able to keep them on or did he pull them off all the time?

Oh, they were always off and they made the most awful noise and the feedback noise of the screeching sound in your ears. Um, it was terrible and not one of my most favorite parts of the process because they did not give him… Isaiah and Silas. Their hearing loss is two separate. Um, they, it’s the same type of hearing loss, but two different degrees. So Silas’s hearing loss did not give the hearing aids did not give him any access to sound whatsoever because of his profound deafness. So it was just kind of a, in order to go the CI route, if we were going to choose that you have to do a trial period of hearing aids to make sure that they aren’t working.

Okay, so he’s seven months old. When he got the hearing aids, did you know that that’s what you were doing at that point? Just doing the trial.

We knew we were gonna give him hearing aids. We did not know for sure that cochlear implant surgery was something that we wanted to do right away.

Um, originally we had thought that we were going to wait until he was able to tell us that he wanted cochlear implants. It took a lot of talking to people in the deaf community. I, I sought out so many people in the social media. Space that were going through something similar. Um, some people that we went to an ASL class and I wanted to meet a couple deaf people that could possibly give me some answers.

 I looked for people that were using cochlear implants, people that had kids that were using cochlear implants, and even people that did not agree with cochlear implants because I wanted to know everything I possibly could. Um, because these doctors are coming at me saying, this is what you’re gonna do next.

This is the process. This is how we’re gonna go at it. And I’m just like, can we, this is a, a huge thing. I’m, my kid is he’s a baby and you’re talking about putting something in his head. I need to know everything. .

Right. Right. I have never talked to anyone who had a child who had used cochlear implants.

I remember. Rush Limbaugh when he first was losing his hearing and that was my first connection with anyone. And so I didn’t know if it was even children or only adults. Um, cuz it’s, it’s just, it’s not the world that I’ve been in, so I haven’t had that access. But, um, but I’m just thinking through, you know, as, as, I mean even a seven-month-old.

You’re still digesting things, you’re still learning how to get feeding schedules together, you know that that’s, that’s hard enough between sleeping and feeding at that, at that point for your first child and then to have to do all of this. Did you get some good feedback from these contacts between the ASL classes and the deaf community?

Were you able to find some people to help you?

I did. I found a lot of good information, a lot of scary information, um, a lot of just differing opinions. People from all different walks of life, kind of giving me their insight, what they believe. Um, he didn’t actually get implanted until almost 18 months because it took me that long.

I always say that I missed out on the first about six months of size life because I was so worried and overtaken. This diagnosis and that I didn’t know anything about that. It really, um, just caused me to miss out on a lot of, like all the baby firsts of my first baby, if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. I can understand that. However, looking at him today, he’s not missing anything because of that. He was getting what he needed. But I know what you mean though, cuz you wanna have those memories. You wanna have that focus to be different from what it had to be. And we were the same way with our daughter. We were asking people. We were calling everyone we could think of just because we didn’t know where to go.

We didn’t know what to do, and we didn’t wanna make the wrong choice. So, you know, trying to even figure this out and knowing that as a young child, everything that you do now feeds into the future. And you know, if you make the wrong choice, you know, not that there’s always a right or wrong choice, it’s just your choice is what’s the right choice.

But you don’t know that one. If you’re going through it, you’re trying to figure out, you know, what is the right one for me even cuz I don’t have enough information to know those choices. So Silas was a little bit older whenever Isaiah was born. Um, did you know right away with Isaiah, did you pick up on it or was it the same hearing?

So it was. He had the same hearing test. We had already had the audiologist appointment scheduled because we knew that there was a possibility, a 25% chance of him having some degree of hearing loss as well. So we wanted to be on top of it, ready to go. Um, he did have the hearing test in the hospital, and he only failed.

I’m using quotes here, fail, failed the hearing on the right side. So the left side was better than the right side. Oh, and yeah, so we weren’t really under, we didn’t really understand what was going on there. We thought maybe it was a fluke and it was fine because they did bring up the whole fluid thing.

Again, not knowing that deafness runs right in our family or with, you know, our babies. So we kind of just went with it. We knew that when we left the hospital, we were already going to go to the audiologist. And when we got to the audiologist about a month and a half later, um, it was Silas’s audiologist.

So we already had a relationship with her and it was a lot good. Better of an experience being the first time she said that his hearing test looks a lot like Si’s, but it’s severe, sloping profound. So a few of the. deafness is a spectrum. So a few of the frequencies that she tested were coming back, that he was hearing just a little bit and it was different than what Silas’s was.

Okay. Okay. So did you, um, did you already know that if he, if he were going to be determined as deaf when he was born, that you would do the cochlear implants with him as well?

Absolutely. By this time, Silas was three and a half, three, almost three and a half, and we had seen such wonderful results and we knew, I knew wholeheartedly that I made the right decision at this point because of the way Silas loves his relationship with sound.

He loves to hear music. He knows that he doesn’t have to wear his processors whenever he doesn’t want. , but I would say that a good 90% of the time he has them on and it’s always because it’s his choice. So, seeing all those first, like him, you know, the first time he was verbally able to say, I love you, or hear me say I love him, and ask for music and sing along to music.

Just all of those first times and all those magical moments made everything else just so worth it.

I’ve seen some posts you’ve had on just in the last few months, um, of the boys with, with music going, and I’m thinking the chaos in your house sometimes, because the volume probably is not controlled as much.

No, they’re, that’s the one thing about deaf children is they are not quiet at all.

Yep. with the cochlear implants. So humor me here because I’m totally ignorant on this. . I see. Um, in pictures that you have of Isaiah, he’s wearing a headband. Mm-hmm. . So the implant is attached to, is it to the bone in the, like, is attached to the skull.

How is it, how is the actual implant being used?

So there is an internal piece that sits underneath the skin, behind the ear. Um, they actually implant it behind the ear and the electrodes go down to the cochlea. . Um, the, that’s what sends the sound signals to the cochlea to be processed in the brain as sound.

It’s magnetic. Okay. So the external piece sits on top of the internal piece, um, and it kind of just magnetizes and it, it sits there, um, right on top of it. So that’s how it stays on there.

So, so when he’s wearing the headband, is that holding it?

Yeah, that’s just a retention method because if he rips ’em off or takes ’em off or they fall off, it helps me to find them or just helps to keep ’em on, especially when he’s that little.

Right. Well that’s what I was thinking cuz I noticed pictures that you’re showing of Silas, he’s not wearing the headband.

No. He, right now he has a sports necklace retention line, which basically is just a black, uh, cord necklace he wears and there’s two little hooks that hold the batteries in there so that way if they do fall off, they’re not gonna just, they’re both very active

So I needed something to keep them in their spots because it’s also very hectic having a lot of money run around on your children’s heads. I’ve tried nearly every single retention method you could possibly figure out to keep them on their heads.

Do you have, and I haven’t looked through your Instagram enough to see, do you have like, um, shopping links or anything on there?

So if anyone’s looking for that type of thing where they can see where you’ve gotten what you’re using.

Yeah, I have an Amazon storefront that has a cochlear implant accessory, um, kind of list. On one spot. And I’m really good too, about, um, if somebody messaged me wanting a link, a lot of them are from Etsy or the Cochlear store, um, itself.

I’m good about sending those over too. So,

Oh, good, good. Yeah, so those that are listening, um, in the notes for this episode, we’ll put her Instagram, but, um, but, you know, check, check it out. I, I would encourage you to see what she’s doing. She’s really posting a lot of really good content. If nothing else, that resource alone will be enough to know where things that you’ve already tried and tested, um, to know where, where to start if you’re, if you’re looking for something like this.

We talked about wearing the implant and kind of how that, how that works with the magnetic part. what was the process of adjusting to them and learning how to use them both for your kids and for you too? Cuz at this point, you were learning. Not them as much.

Yeah, so I would say in the beginning, um, with Silas and Isaiah, but although with Isaiah I had already done it once, so I knew what to expect, um, the process. , keeping them on their heads, um, trying to figure out what the difference between them needing a listening break and it becoming a game. Because eventually, if they know that you’re reacting to them, pulling them off of their heads, they’re gonna keep doing it just to get your reaction.

And then on the other side of that, the listening fatigue that comes along with constantly processing, um, is a lot. It’s overstimulating, especially for a baby, basically, um, to have to learn how to do that. So, Juggling that, trying to figure out, you know, what’s just the wanting a reaction, what’s actually listening fatigue, and then the care that goes along with it as far as like putting ’em in the dry kits at night, making sure their implant site isn’t getting infected and rubbing the, you know, vitamin E oil on it.

Making sure that they’re hearing you. So doing the, the proper ling six sounds every day, um, where it’s like, I don’t know if you want me to go through and do them, but, uh, there are six sounds that you practice with your kids every day to make sure they have access to all of the speech sounds. Um, oh, just kind of.

all of the things that come along with it. And then charging them, you know, replacing batteries, making sure you have batteries in stock, you’re not going to run out. Uh, making sure that every night they go on the charge or just that kind of thing. Um, it was a lot to get used to. And then when Isaiah was born and he had his implantation surgery, it doubled

Right, right. So where the outer piece is attaching to the internal part, where the magnet is, did you have any trouble with hair loss in those areas?

Yeah, so the magnetic spot, um, where the magnet sits on their head, Silas has actually had a little bit of hair loss there.

More so from, we used to use clips. Hair clips. and, um, he would rub his head and try to like, uh, he wasn’t trying, but they would pull his hair so he would have big bald spots where the clips were. Right. The magnets not so much themselves, but I do notice that it’s easier to keep the magnets attached when that part of his head is shaved.

Just a little bit shorter than everything else.

You’ve mentioned a few little things there. Are there any other concerns or risks that are associated with the implants that, that you’ve had to think?

Well, like any technology, you have the risk of it failing or something going wrong with the internal piece.

Um, technology’s not forever, and that’s why I don’t necessarily a hundred percent rely on their technology for them to communicate. That’s why we use ASL, lipreading, a total communication approach. Um, but there are, so say the boys were to get a hearing or an ear infection, there is risk there if the ear infection is not cleared up right away.

It could possibly go to the implant site causing, you know, a worse infection or meningitis. They do have a higher risk of meningitis because of where the implant sits at. Okay. Um, there is the risk of needing an explant because of infection. So say down the road, Silas gets hit in the head with a baseball, God forbid, and there is actually a cut there, um, that can cause an infection and they would have to actually take the implant out and re-implant somewhere else in a different location. Um, so there, there are obviously risks as with anything, um, very rarely, knock on wood, do they happen, but they, I have heard of cases where, you know, I don’t wanna speak for every cochlear implant mom or user because there are situations that bad things can.

Right. Will there be, um, like will they, will they need to have any type of at restrictions in sports and things or will they be able to participate as much as they want.

They will be able to participate as much as they want. Um, I believe the only thing that they aren’t able to do is dive a certain amount of feet under water. Like nothing, like in a pool would even be, but like way like deep sea diving. I’m not sure the, the exact, um, number there. But as far as sports, you know, I would prefer they not play football . Um, I would definitely prefer that I’m going to be putting Silas in some tee-ball and some, uh, golf lessons and some drum lessons, but I, I’m going to let them do whatever they want to do. Cause I’ve always told them, you know, you’re capable of doing whatever you want to do, but we’ll see.

Join us next week for the rest of Felicia’s story of how cochlear implants have opened options for her children and some of the decisions her family will need to make in the next few years about education and advocacy.

You don’t want to miss the valuable information she shares for parents facing a similar diagnosis, as well as tips for anyone communicating with someone who is deaf.

This podcast is made possible by support from our listeners. If you wanna help offset the cost of producing the Water Prairie Chronicles, become a supporter at https://buymeacoffee.com/waterprairie.

You’ve been listening to the Water Prairie Chronicles, a podcast created to encourage and support parents of special needs children. I’m glad you were able to join us today, and I hope to see you back next week for another episode of the Water Prairie Chronicles.

Felicia Aquilo is the proud mother of Silas and Isaiah, 2 boys who were born profoundly deaf and have received bilateral cochlear implants. Felicia and her husband, Steve, are raising the boys by teaching them to speak and to use sign language. They are hearing parents, but they are doing an awesome job of learning the skills they need to make communication easy for their sons! Felicia is active on Instagram and can be found @feliciaaquilo.

The post Episode #48: Giving Our Sons the Gift of Sound: A Mother’s Story of Cochlear Implants and ASL (Part 1) appeared first on Water Prairie.

Meet Lenora Edwards, Chief Knowledge Officer for Better Speech - a revolutionary online speech therapy company dedicated to helping children use language effectively! Lenora has years of experience when it comes to analyzing the differences between analytic language processors and gestalt language processors. In this interview, she reveals her expertise on the matter, as well as a fascinating look into echolalia - or "echo speech." Tune in to find out more about Lenora's journey in providing quality speech therapy options for children and to get an insider's perspective on these different types of language processors.

Find the full directory at waterprairie.com/listen.

Meet Lenora Edwards, Chief Knowledge Officer for Better Speech – a revolutionary online speech therapy company dedicated to helping children use language effectively! Lenora has years of experience when it comes to analyzing the differences between analytic language processors and gestalt language processors. In this interview, she reveals her expertise on the matter, as well as a fascinating look into echolalia – or “echo speech.” Tune in to find out more about Lenora’s journey in providing quality speech therapy options for children and to get an insider’s perspective on these different types of language processors.

During our Season 2 episodes, we’ll be asking each guest to share “2 Truths and a Lie” about themselves as a fun way to get to know our guests. We’ve decided not to give the answer right away so our listeners can try to guess the true answers. In the comments section for this video, add your thoughts to which of Lenora’s answers were true and which was the lie. Here are the answers she gave us during the interview:

*** We’ll post the answer on our Instagram and Twitter account a week after this video posts so go there and check to see if you got it right!

https://www.instagram.com/water.prairie/

https://www.twitter.com/waterprairie

Lenora’s Contact information:

Connect with Us: https://linktr.ee/waterprairie

Support this channel: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/waterprairie

Music Used: “LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Recently I had the chance to speak with Lenora Edwards. Lenora has years of experience as a speech and language pathologist, and in this interview, she reveals her expertise on the matter as well as a fascinating look into analytic and gestalt language processors.

Welcome back to the Water Prairie Chronicles everyone. We appreciate you being with us today, and we have a special guest. I am talking today with Lenora Edwards. She’s the Chief Knowledge Officer with Better Speech, an online speech therapy company, and we’re gonna tell you a little bit more about that, but Lenora is an ASHA board-certified speech-language pathologist.

That’s a lot to say in one phrase. Since 2010, she’s been working with individuals of all ages, starting with our youngest learners, and that’s where we’re gonna focus a little bit today. And Lenora, welcome to the Water Prairie Chronicles.

It is so great to spend time here with you today. Tonya, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

All right, so I gave you a general introduction, but can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?

Absolutely. So like you said, my name is Lenora Edwards and I am a board-certified speech-language pathologist and A S H A, it’s the American Speech Language Hearing Association.

And with that indicates, is. As a board-certified clinician, I have had the proper education and I have passed my boards, and therefore I’m certified by the board within the United States. That being said, I then have the ability to be licensed in states. So really, I am licensed in the state of Pennsylvania, and I live in Pennsylvania, but I’m also licensed in four other states.

Because I have the ability to work online, I can apply for licensure in those other states. So that allows us to provide speech therapy services, especially online throughout the US because I can be on my computer, but I have clients in Colorado and clients in South Carolina. So it’s really fantastic that we have the ability and the technology to do that.

Today we’re gonna be talking about the speech development is such a large. Range of topics, um, that I’ve asked Lenora to talk with me a little bit about just speech development today. Thinking of our younger, I wouldn’t say patients, but our younger learners really because they all have to start learning at some point to communicate.

So I’ve asked if we can touch on some of the differences in how people process language, and so we’re gonna get into that in just a minute. But to change things up a little bit, for season two, we’ve decided that we’re gonna start by playing a game instead of waiting till the end. So season one, if you’ve listened through that, we did a speed round.

This is season two now. So we’re going to do a game called “Two Truths and a Lie.” So if you’ve ever done an icebreaker in a large group, you may have done this before, but what we’re asking each guest to do is to share two truths about themselves and then one lie. And we want those that are listening to try to discern which is the lie.

And those that are listening, you can put a comment if you’re watching the YouTube channel, you can make a comment below the YouTube video or you can go to our Instagram @water.prairie and we’ll post the 3 choices there so you can choose which one, and we will eventually release the answer.

We wanna give you a little bit of time to talk about it first. So Lenora, what are your two truths and a lie? And mix them up so we don’t know which one is which.

Okay. My two truths and a lie. Uh, one, I had a baking business. Two, I hiked the Appalachian Trail, and three, I hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc. So there are two truths and a lie.

Hmm. Okay. We will be posting those on YouTube and on Instagram. So I wanna see some conversation. Those that are listening, go and find it. And if you wanna see if you’re right or not, check back again later to see what our answer is. And remind me to ask what the answer is before we finish this, because I may forget that part.

To start out with, I’ve seen some terms about analytic language processors, and gestalt language processors. Echolalia, I think is how you say it. Can we start with just what is an analytic language processor and what’s maybe an example of what that would look like?

Absolutely. So I’m gonna rewind before I get to that.

When it comes to language development, and you know, a lot of the time people will tell me like, “oh, we’re expecting,” and I’m like, great. Start talking. Because language starts developing immediately and it does develop in the womb. So it’s really important that as that little baby is growing throughout that timeframe to keep talking because they are picking up information.

Once that blessed day arrives and they’re finally here in your arms to keep talking. We are actually born with the ability to understand language. That being said, there has to be language input for us to make cohesive sense of it. So our brain, we are equipped for that language, part of the brain to understand language.

But like I said, language has to come in. Now when it comes to language, and as a speech-language pathologist, people often think, oh, we only work with articulation. “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with my speech. I speak fine.” And that is true, but there’s much more that we do. So when it comes to language development, there are two parts.

There’s our ability to understand language. So everything that you and your listeners are doing right now, that is the receptive part of language, you’re understanding the information that I’m saying. Then it comes to expressive language. Everything that I’m doing and how I’m stringing my sentences together in the grammatical formation I’m choosing is the expressive component of language.

So that does develop and it really starts developing as early as the womb. So it’s important, the understanding of language, it’s important for them to have language going on in their environment. And we often say, you know, to new parents, “talk, narrate, tell them what you’re doing,” whether you wanna call it sportscasting or narrating or just talking, whatever label you wanna give it.

As your little one is developing, they’re listening. So the more that you talk to them, the more vocabulary and the more information you are giving them. So when you pick them up out of the crib and when you lay them down to change their diaper, keep talking about what you’re doing and say what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. And to keep singing and to keep engaging with them socially because that social attention, that joint attention, that interaction is so important for our communication, and these are foundational things for our communication development.

When it comes to very specific, you asked about analytical and gestalt language processing. Also Echolalia. So when it comes to analytical language, they used to think back in the day that we only developed language in this one way and it was just one word at a time and it would build upon itself. We’ve now after I think some 40 years ago, researchers came up with also, we’re actually understanding it in two ways.

We have the analytical development. Or the Gestalt language processing, in which case Gestalt means “as a whole.” So some children develop language in their understanding of language in scripts, in chunks of information. So, such as, “let’s go to the store.” If they heard it on a TV show or if they heard somebody say it, they’ll repeat it. They’ll echo that entire phrase.

For the analytical, they’ll come out with “go,” and then it’ll be, “let’s go,” and then it’ll be “to,” “let’s go to.” And as you can see, it went from one word at “go.” “Let’s go” to two words, and “let’s go to” at three words. So that continues to build that building up from 1, 2, 3 is the analytical language development.

When it comes to gestalt, you’re getting that chunk of information and the reverse basically happens. So children will come up with this script or this phrase that they’ve caught and are repeating. Then they have to chunk downwards. They have to mix and match and understand these combinations to create intentional communication.

So there is definitely a difference when it comes to that. When it comes to echolalia, they’re repeating and there is a very normal development that your child should be repeating because children learn through experience. They learn through you modeling. So as you are saying things, they’re working to model you.

They’re working to echo you. That’s a good thing. When it starts to get beyond two years, and it’s still quite persistent, that is an indicator that you would wanna reach out to a speech-language pathologist and really have your child assessed to see what else is going on for their language development and how else they may be able to be cared for if there are services that may need to be provided.

So thinking back to when my children were young. They would’ve been analytic language processors because they started with one word, maybe two. And it would be like, you would hear them say, you know, “go,” they would get first, but then they would maybe, you know, “go home.” “Go play.”

They’d add the action or the destination to it. And then it would add some other descriptive words with that. So that’s the analytic part of it. And then recently I ran into a young adult who was communicating with me, but as she was talking, I was hearing phrases that I’d heard from a baking show that I’d watched.

Another one from an animated movie that I’d seen all in the same sentence. The phrases were in there. so that would be an older person who is still using the Gestalt, is that right? Or would that be the echo?

It would still be echolalic because they’re repeating something, but also they’re producing a phrase and it’s important to remember that when children or adults when they are doing this, this is them communicating. This is a great thing and it should be acknowledged and validated. You know, years ago, especially, we really didn’t have a lot of information on how to properly treat this. And thankfully, with advancements in our own education and our own skillset and development of the world, we now have great tools to really help children and other people to take this skill, but to also harness it in a way that’s effective. So we’re not saying “No, be quiet. Don’t say that.” We’re saying, “oh, okay. I understand you want something.” And then also what we’re doing is offering additional vocabulary to support it, cause sometimes they’re wanting, clearly they’ve now said a phrase, they’ve now said a, a script.

They are wanting to communicate and it’s up to us as the listeners to validate it, but to also indicate that we’re understanding you and to really work to have that back and forth of understanding information. So that’s really important that we then also offer alternative scripts rather than saying, “no, no, don’t say that.”

Or you know, let’s say, “good job Johnny. Good job Johnny. Good job Johnny. Good job Johnny.” We can say “good job, Johnny,” and then what we’ll also indicate to recommend to families and you know, people who are interacting with these other individuals is talk in the third person. “I did a good job.” So that way they’re using functional language. Now they’re not talking in the third person from what you said, and to really go back and forth of, “no, you say this,” “I say this,” “you say this.”

That can be very confusing. So when we offer that third-person model, “I did a good job.” Then they’re using it appropriately. We’ve given them more tools. ‘”I did a good job.” We’re now indicating we’re showing visually what we’re expressing. “I did a good job. I did that on paper.” And that person is able to then understand, but also to have effective and intentional communication.

So in a younger child who is starting in that role, about what age would you see those longer phrases like, “I did a good job?” Would that be around age three or four? That they’re repeating as long of a phrase as that?

And when they’re developing in that gestalt component, at that whole piece of information or that script, we’re hearing more words.

Sometimes it might just be, “wow.” Which is one word, but it’s a statement. It’s clear. And other times it might be, “let’s go to the store.” “Let’s go to the store.” And they may be looking at something, but also saying a phrase that they’ve heard multiple times. So now we’re trying to offer new vocabulary. When you do that, if they’re pointing to something, let’s say, um, “Super fast red car,” “super fast red car,” and they’re seeing a red car, but they want to play with the toy. We’ll take that pattern that they’re using, we’ll take that variation of their voice and how they’re saying it. We’ll match it, but we’ll also then pair the new language in there. So, ” super fast red car.” “super fast red car.” “I want the red car,” “I want the super fast red car.” And that way you’re offering functional language “I want,” and you’re also matching it. So that way then they’re echoing, they’re gonna hear what you’re saying. And they’re gonna be able to produce it more effectively and more functionally.

So are they learning not just what the words are related to the object or whatever it is, but also the voice inflection so all of it comes together for them as a package?

It does, but when it’s a gestalt, they understand it chunked up, and then we have to chunk it down for them to get more specific.

So when they understand they may be using it appropriately. In that case, I gave a pretty close example. They may be using it appropriately, but they’re on their own intonation. They’re on their own rhythm and sound of what they’re hearing. It’s up to us to match that, to come in with new information, and then we can play with it once we have that connection of understanding. So that way, rather than saying, “no, slow down, say this,” it’s not as harsh, but it’s also really supportive and what they actually understand is “oh, this person understands me because they’re speaking in the same rhythm that I am. They’re using the same voice flexion,” and it’s much more of a match, and then we can go on together.

So when I first started looking at this, I equated it to learning a foreign language for me. Um, in one case, when I was in high school, I learned Latin and then French, so we started with the basic words and then we build onto that.

So that would be that analytic language path. But then I was traveling for a while with an international company and I would be landed in a country where I didn’t know the language, and so I’m picking it up from hearing phrases and watching and learning, and the phrases began to make meaning, but the phrases were phrases because I couldn’t separate the words from them yet.

And so I would say that would probably be more the Gestalt type, even though that may not be my natural learning process. It was the only way I could learn that language.

Yeah. That, and you’re also getting submerged in it, especially because when you have foundational communication tools to begin with.

So your brain is working to piece this together, and not only are we hearing phrases, but now we’re hearing it in a context. So when we’re traveling or when we’re learning a second language, and you’re seeing somebody order ice cream, you are following that pattern of, “okay, this is what this means.”

This is how this shapes, you know, if you use some more generic terms and you don’t have a context, “oh, that’s good.” Well in what way? What are we talking about, “good?” You know, can we define it a little bit more? It’s a lot harder when you go and you travel and you learn another language.

You’re getting so submerged in that environment, which is a great thing because your neurons start to fire and wire in a more effective way, and you’re really coming in cohesively. You’ve now taken your physical body to a new place and it’s working to align with other people, and you’re watching this other language and then you’re picking up things that you did not even know that you were aware of.

But because you’re so immersed in it, your mirror neurons, all your neurons are just firing to really make cohesive sense of that environment.

So I wasn’t sure if that was a good comparison or not. It was just the best I could do to try to connect with it.

Good comparison. I like it.

Well cause then I was thinking, if I can think of it that way, then, when I’m talking to a four-year-old who’s at this stage maybe I can understand a little bit more because they’re coming into our world now. And, and they don’t have the benefit of being an adult with a full language vocabulary, even in another language but they still have a lot inside that they want to say and communicate. We’re trying to find ways to do it.

Absolutely, especially when little ones come in, I often tell people they have no idea what’s going on. They don’t know a wall, they don’t know a pen, they don’t know a ball.

It’s up to us to explain this entire world to them, and little ones, they are so, so smart, especially because their brain is really developing at a phenomenal rate, and it’s working so hard to make sense of this world and to make sense of language and to really, you know, um, piece things together so, so much.

It’s extraordinary how brains develop, especially in those first 5, 6, and 7 years. Absolutely astounding.

So is there an age that if a child is not being helped to learn to communicate, so if they’re not an analytic learner and they’re kind of being overlooked for a while, is there an age where it’s hard to go back and regroup and to continue?

Or can they always be picked up and caught up again?

I would say depends on the child, depending on where they are and what’s going on. That being said, if there is a concern that their language is not developing, it’s not that we can’t go back and it’s not that they can’t develop. The first and foremost is to have them assessed by a professional to determine where they are on the formal scales that we use, using our formal assessments, but also what else?

Using our informal assessments. How are they interacting with peers? How are they interacting in the home? You know? Let’s say you have a three-and-a-half-year-old and they’re now in daycare. Okay. Well, and the provider is having some concerns that they’re not interacting quite as much and they’re expressing that to the parent as the parent is saying.

“Oh, okay. I’m not too sure.” One of the great things about Better Speech is that you can come to our website, betterspeech.com, and we offer a free 15-minute consultation. So when that parent has questions and they’re not sure, I don’t know about you, but I roll over at 2:00 AM, and I got questions. I don’t have six months to wait to speak to a professional.

I have questions now. So as early as the next business, we’re able to connect with people and answer their questions. So say you’re three and a half year old, something’s going on. They’re repeating a lot. They’re, you know that they’re talking, but it’s not making a whole lot of sense. And now the teachers and caregivers are starting to really express concerns.

You can reach out to us at Better Speech, and also the really important thing is that you’re then able to provide speech therapy services to that child. It’s not a, “ah, well you missed the window. Sorry, kiddo.” It is an absolute yes. Speech therapy services will be beneficial to you. And it’s really important because we want that little one to be able to understand their environment.

Do you want apple juice or orange juice to drink? And do you wanna have pancakes or waffles? We want them to be able to make those decisions and to express what they wanna express. “I want the ball.” That’s really important to be able to tell people your wants and your needs, and it’s very imperative that we have those services for those children.

Whether they get provided by the school system or early intervention or through Better Speech, the most important thing is to be able to provide services to that little one.

I was hoping you would answer that way because in my mind it is never too late. You always have a chance to make someone’s life better.

Absolutely. I completely agree. I don’t think I know anybody that would be like, “oh, sorry, you’re too late.”

So you kind of touched on my main questions here, but I did wanna go back to something that I think is important that we discuss. At what age should a parent be expecting to pick up on something if there is a concern? You know, at six months, there’s probably not a concern there, but is it 12 months?

Is it 18 months? We had said three, but you had mentioned two earlier too, so kind of clear that up for us.

So when language starts, especially for little ones, as I said, they’re listening all the time. As their language, even though they don’t have their first words and they’re not talking, they are communicating.

Children communicate through their coos and their babbles and their laughs and their giggles and their cries. That is intentional communication. This is why you’ll often hear parents say, “oh, that’s not that cry, that’s this cry.” Because the child has now said, this is my cry for this and this is my cry for this.

And we as the caregivers and the parents of that child, understand that. They wanted us to know that, and now we understand it. We have it now. When they’re working to communicate, what you’ll often see is little ones will start to, as they were cooing, they’re now gonna start babbling.

We’ll often hear “ba, ba, ba, ba,” or when they’re laying in the crib or (buzzing sound with lips) they’re playing. That is a play. When they’re just drumming their lips. But when they start to use consonants and when they start to string vowels, “ah, ah, ah, e, e e,” that is their babbling play and they’re learning and they’re working to understand and to make sense of all this information that they’ve been hearing for so long.

And as your little one, typically by the first birthday will hear. One word. Those are general guidelines and there’s a lot of flexibility in those guidelines, but they’re still guidelines. So at one year old, you’re gonna start to hear one-word vocabulary. So as you get to two years, you’re gonna start to hear two-word combination vocabulary.

Three years, you’ll start to hear three-word vocabulary combinations. It might start out as “muh” for more, then you might hear, “more please,” that attempt to communicate. And then you’ll start to hear, “I want more.” That’s a progression. That’s an analytical development that we were talking about earlier.

That is very, very appropriate. So those are the guidelines for sure. If you’re not hearing your child babble, “bah, bah, bah, bee, bee, bee, boo boo.” Making those noises. If you’re not hearing your child, babble, in that, you know, 10, 12 months even it’s, or seven, eight months, if you’re not hearing those attempts at combinations, that’s a little interesting. Not necessarily they need to, they need speech therapy. You want to see this communication, this back and forth. So when you, let’s say you have your, um, eight-month-old and you’re sitting and you’re playing with a toy and they’re looking at a book and they’re looking and you wanna see them engaged in that book, and you’ll start to hear, “uh, uh,” as they’re attempting.

There are approximations, there are attempts to communicate, and that’s a really, really good thing. If you have a dog in the house and let’s call the dog Bo. If you’re not hearing “Bo Bo” an attempt at one-year-old, that’s a little concerning, but again, not massively. When it’s two years and you’re not hearing those things, those are concerning.

So we usually say that 18 to 24 months is that, if you’re not hearing, really start defining those words or “mom” or “baba,” those combinations. Those are definitely concerns, and if you ever have concerns, especially those 2:00 AM question marks, reach out to professionals and even if it’s for your own peace of mind, I’m very strong proponent of if you have a question, Absolutely speak with somebody and let that question be known, because that’s a really good thing.

People aren’t supposed to know, certain child language development. They’re not supposed to know these certain milestones if they didn’t have a child before. They’re now developing these skills. They’re developing this awareness, so if you don’t know, that’s okay. Ask. That’s why we’re here, and it’s so important to ask questions and to not feel stupid, a lot of the time they’ll warn me and they’ll say, I have a stupid question. I’m like, it’s not a stupid question. You wouldn’t know the answer. Why would you know? This is why we we’re having this interaction. This is a good thing. It’s not a stupid question. So I really try to allow people a lot of grace and understanding that it’s okay.

It’s a good thing to have a question by all means.

We’ve mentioned Better Speech a few times through this now, and you’ve talked about the free consultation if they had a question. Tell us a little bit more about exactly what is the company, the website, whatever you can tell us that the parents can benefit from knowing about this.

Absolutely. So Better Speech is an online speech therapy company. We are over 150 speech-language pathologists strong. We also all have at least 10 years’ experience. So for me personally, I’ve worked in the NICU, I’ve worked in the PICU, I’ve worked in inpatient outpatient therapy clinics.

I have experience. It’s not like I’m right out of college, which isn’t a bad thing for those who are right out of college, but some people want to know what other experiences you have. So we each have at least 10 years of experience, but also we are nationwide, so like I said earlier, I am licensed in Pennsylvania, but I’m also licensed in four other states.

And because we are online, we have the ability to provide speech therapy services throughout the entire US and then we are also internationally based. So we are able to provide online speech therapy services to so many people, and that’s a really big deal, especially when you live 45 minutes from a clinic or you have to wait six months to get on a waitlist to get an evaluation.

That’s a huge deal. We are able to match people as early as the next day with a clinician in their state so that they can receive speech therapy services. And that’s so important because especially with little ones and their development, time is of the essence. It’s truly, truly important.

So what is the website?

It is betterspeech.com. And we have all this fantastic social media. So come visit us there, and if anybody has questions, reach out to us at betterspeech.com or leave comments on our YouTube and our Instagram and our TikTok, and we will do our very best to answer any and all of your questions and provide you with as much care and service as we can.

Excellent. So those are listening. I’ll post the links to everything that she sent me. I have like eight different links there that I can put on and I’ll put them on the resource page on the website.

So just check the show notes and you’ll be able to get there for that. Is there anything that I didn’t ask you about that we should talk about?

We have an amazing practice library on our platform.

So what all is on there?

So on our Better Speech platform, when we have clients, we have people often ask, how do you do speech therapy online?

And it’s actually, we’ve been online since long before the pandemic. So we are very comfortable online, and we have this incredible platform where we have games that we help engage our clients with and the massive benefit of making it fun, cause learning happens, especially when it’s fun, is we are also able to then have them, that the family as a client, they’re able to log into their account, they’re able to see their progress and see all their notes, but they’re also able to play games and having your parent or guardian engage with you and play games while you’re having speech therapy and while you’re learning is so, so important because it really helps that child understand that they’re seen and that they’re heard and that they’re cared for and that this is important. Whereas if you go to an outpatient clinic, sometimes what can happen is, the parent and the child are getting separated, or at least in my state, they’re still in masks and shields so there’s other hindrances going on, but also in a school system, the parent isn’t able to be there with Better Speech, because we are online, we provide speech therapy services right in the comfort of your own home. And we get to work with parents and guardians one-on-one along with that child and explain what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

And it’s so, so massively beneficial. And the gains these children make and gains adults make because we also provide adult speech therapy services is absolutely phenomenal.

Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you. On your website, and those that are listening, go and check out the website. They do have a list of price breakdowns of the types of services.

Does insurance cover any of those? So that’s your cash price?

We do accept insurance, but also what we provide people with is what we refer to as a superbill, which sounds so awesome. I love the name of it, but it’s a form that has your information on it. It also has our notes and it also has the information your insurance company wants.

for when you go and work with your insurance company to ensure that those services are provided. And that’s such a great thing because that way you can turn around and make sure that you are getting the proper coverage that you need from your insurance provider and that the information is there for them.

So they would file themselves?

I was impressed when I saw the prices and so for those that have never done an out-of-pocket type cost like this, you actually will be pleasantly surprised when you see what they have posted, but knowing that insurance also is a possibility may make it an affordable piece for them.

That is our goal, to be not only effective and not only convenient but to be incredibly affordable because it’s so important that people receive the proper care and the proper services at an affordable price.

Lenora, thank you for coming on today and sharing this information with us. I really appreciate you addressing my questions and just giving us the extra information about the company as well.

Thank you so much, Tonya, for letting me be here. It was so nice spending time with you.

Lenora Edwards is an ASHA Board Certified Speech Language Pathologist and Chief Knowledge Officer with Better Speech. Since obtaining her CCC’s in 2010, she has worked with individuals of all ages from little ones who are learning to understand and express themselves to adults who want to improve their speaking skills and become more fluent and effective communicators.  Lenora loves to teach and educate others so if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

The post Episode #47: Uncovering the Mystery Behind Analytic vs Gestalt Language Processors appeared first on Water Prairie.

Show Notes:

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Feeling overwhelmed by the costs of managing your child’s disability? Do you ever worry about how your child might have enough savings when they’re older? You’re not alone!

The NC ABLE program is making it easier for people with disabilities to achieve financial independence. Learn how your child can benefit from this awesome opportunity during this episode of the podcast. Kristen Merrick of the NC State Treasurer’s Office took a few minutes to chat with us during the NC State Fair Access ABILITY Day event a few months ago, and I wanted to share with you what I was able to learn about the NC ABLE program. It looks like it might be a great option for children with disabilities even if they don’t live in NC!

NC ABLE Website

National ABLE Alliance Website

IRS Webpage on ABLE programs

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Show Notes:

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Join us as we learn more about how Virtual Reality rooms in schools can help children overcome challenges with social and emotional struggles. Ange Anderson has worked in the field of special education and used virtual reality with many children to help them overcome fears and help them feel more comfortable in everyday situations.

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Do you know what training is needed to get a guide dog? What’s the difference between a guide dog and a service dog, and how does a guide dog know where to go if their person is blind? Tonya and Ed McDaniel discuss these questions and many more as Ed shares his story of adopting Serina, his guide dog, and what he’s learned over the past year since he adopted her. Ed is a runner, and the guide dog school he worked with was able to accommodate his wish to find a dog who could run alongside him and allow him to continue his training schedule.

If you’re thinking about getting a guide dog for yourself or your older child, you’ll gain some insight into the process by hearing Ed’s story. Be sure to listen to the end for some advice he gives for those starting their journey to owning a guide dog!

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Links:

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Books on Disability and Inclusion

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This special collaboration of children’s literature authors features childrens books about disabilities and inclusion. This collection of books about disabilities for kids will be a great asset to any child’s personal library, but it is also a wonderful list of books to give to teachers for their classroom library.

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Books mentioned in this episode:

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How does NF2 change your life?

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Peter Burton joins the podcast today to discuss how neurofibromatosis type 2 has changed his life. Peter openly shares his advice for someone going deaf as he talks about what happens when you go deaf. This honest conversation covers questions such as should you disclose you are deaf on a job applications, deaf accommodations at work, and what tools help the deaf communicate with the hearing.

Peter encourages listeners to try to communicate with those who are going deaf by learning some simple ASL signs to start the conversation and then shares his favorite app he uses, Live Transcribe. In fact, it was through this app that he and Tonya were first able to communicate when they met.

Contact Peter: Send email to [email protected] with “PETER” in the subject line, and we’ll forward it to him for you.

View transcript of episode #42.

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Items mentioned in this episode:

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Live Transcribe – app for smart phones (free for Andriod users)

https://amzn.to/3Grm9TP – Flashing Doorbell for the Deaf

https://amzn.to/3V5IV8L – Sonic Bomb Dual Extra Loud Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker

https://amzn.to/3tIvgHZ – American Sign Language for Beginners book

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Did you know your premature baby can communicate with you? How do you know if your toddler should be talking yet? Do only young children develop a stutter? Why would a speech-language pathologist work with an adult?

In this episode of the Water Prairie Chronicles, Tonya interviews Jackie Gradnigo, a Speech-Language Pathologist in Louisiana, about her job as an SLP and how she works with babies in the NICU across the ages to seniors living in a care facility. Jackie’s upbeat personality shines through as she shares about the work she loves as a speech specialist.

Links mentioned in this episode:

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Amazon Shopping Ideas for children with speech delays:

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My children loved LeapFrog Learning Toys like these:

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Ariel was a 6th-grade student who began to show signs of struggling with her schoolwork. When her mother took her to be evaluated for learning differences, she was told her daughter would not be able to complete regular school graduation and to plan for her to follow an alternative educational path. In today’s episode of the Water Prairie Chronicles, Ariel tells her own story of how Dyslexia hasn’t stopped her from achieving her goals in life. When asked what she would tell the doctor she saw in sixth grade, she responded enthusiastically, “Look at me now!”

Listen in on Ariel’s story of how her mother made a huge impact on how she approached her learning challenges, how specific teachers left a positive impact on her life, and what she’s doing as an adult with dyslexia. You’ll be inspired by how this young woman faced the devastating diagnosis of her doctor with determination to believe the words her mother told her and not to let the negativity hold her back!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Ariel’s Instagram: @mermaid_capri

Ariel’s sister, Kenya’s, podcast Episode #33 on Childhood Narcolepsy

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