This past Saturday night, Aaron and I went out for an early anniversary celebration. On the way out of the restaurant, I heard a noise and asked what it was. He said it was an ambulance driving into the valley below us. Normally I don't hear an ambulance until I can see it, so it was exciting that I heard this one right away.
Today was my first rehab appointment, with Kris at Pitt's Center for Assistive Technology. An audiologist who does aural rehabilitation, she's also a professor. Her student Stephanie will also be working with me. If they're both there, Kris will likely be supervising.
I had to fill out a questionnaire before arriving. Questions ranged from how my hearing loss affects me to what's important or essential for me to hear. Kris had me answer some more questions during our session, and then we did some exercises. If I thought the ones I did with Sharon were hard, these were on a whole other level. First, however, Kris read off some sounds. I didn't get the /s/ every time. I certainly can't hear it in conversation, so I guess if I'm in a quiet environment with someone who just says the /s/, then hearing it is more likely. It's a start!
With Sharon, I just had to raise my hand if I heard a sound, or point to the correct column. With my HA off and Stephanie's mouth covered, I had to circle which word Stephanie said: the one with one, two or three syllables. The three syllable words always gave me pause, because there was extra sound that confused me. I got a few wrong.
After that, it was which sentence out of four was said. I think I did well on that one. The exercises got progressively harder. Stephanie read a sentence and I had to decide which word - in the middle of the sentence - was read. The two choices were very similar, like teak vs talk. Then they took the closed sets away and Stephanie read random, every day sentences that people say, like "What's your name?" I failed miserably at that one, along with the next one, which were individual words that consisted of a consonant, vowel and another consonant. I occasionally guessed a sound, or a consonant or vowel that was similar, showing that I'm on the right track.
What was encouraging was that at one point Kris said she knew exactly how to help me improve. She and Stephanie will go through everything, see if they can find any patterns and just generally figure out how the next sessions should proceed. My homework is to listen to some children's books on tape. My first thought was, oh, I just went to the library yesterday! But then I remembered: Mom was a kindergarten teacher for years and has a ton of books on tape - several of which she's already given to Samara. So I have some tapes AND books (important at this early stage) to get me started. Now I just need to get Samara to let me use her tape player...
Their methodical approach sounds like it will be very effective! Thanks for the updates. Hope you enjoyed the children’s festival last weekend – wish we’d had more time to chat! suzy () - 24 05 06 - 12:19