Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Something That Made Me Go Hmmm...

Sometimes I truly forget that Bella still has a mild hearing loss with her cochlear implants. Most of the time I go about the day and she always seems to hear me. In the car, up in her bedroom, even across the way when her brother and sister are playing guitar hero next to her. But then there are times when I am snapped back to the reality of her hearing loss. Today during homeschool I was saying something about the word "long." She responded in an appropriate way to the question and then she paused and said, "When you said long, it reminds me of Harry mowing the lawn." I stopped for a moment. Long and lawn? That seemed like an odd connection. I didn't really get it until I stopped and said the words slowly to myself. To her, long and lawn sound the same. Even when we stopped to say the words slowly, she didn't get the difference. It was not until I wrote the words down to show her what letters were in them, did she start to see the difference. Then we repeated the words in the following way, "That fruit roll up is really LONG." "Harry usually mows the LAWN." After saying the words I had her feel the "ng" sound vs. the "n" sound.
Well it was a learning moment for both of us. I continually learn how little things can be so much harder for her and what a trooper she is on a daily basis!

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