I think I am caught up on most of what I want to document for Mollie for now. We are awaiting surgery and trying to keep Mollie virus free. Her surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, February 13, 2008 @ 7:30 a.m. at the Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital.
We simply ask that you all keep Mollie in your prayers. We ask that you pray for the gifted surgeon's hands to be steady, the medicine to not be dangerous for Mollie, the hands that guide and help her along the way be gentle and soothing. We ask for strength for us as her family. We ask for strength in the days after the surgery for Mollie and her caregivers. We ask for prayers for patience with her during her healing process and to help her understand the changes that have happened to her.
Thank you all.
Mollie
First Day of Kindergarten Aug. 2011
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Starting School @ Mama Lere - a typical day @ school
Wow - what a new world for all of us at Mama Lear. It is a school for children who are hearing impaired and may have other disabilities as well. Mama Lear is not a typical developmental school. Meaning that you will not most likely be with typically developing children. The classes are smaller and the teachers specialize in working more closely towards the needs of the children in the class Parents can chose to put a typically developing child at Mama Lear and the other children can benefit from the pace at which a typically developing child would work at. I won't say much more as I don't know all the ins and outs of the school and would hate to be incorrect - this is just what I understand from my experience of being there.
Mollie has two teachers Mrs. Emily and Ms. Carrie. Both are so great at what they do and so caring. I cannot begin to imagine how exhausted they must be at the end of the day when working with the kids. They are so patient and so kind and really work hard to teach the toddlers language and every day skills. This can be a chore some days as there are five kids in Mollie's class. Mollie will be one of two who have the cochlear implants. The other children have various hearing devices.
On a typical day in the classroom we sing the good morning song and the children have a picture of themselves on the board and they are learning to find the picture of themselves and move it to school from home. Sounds simple enough but this is a real chore to get Mollie to understand that the picture is "me". Meaning she has to understand the concept of me. We work on pointing to pictures and saying "that's me". Pronouns are very challenging for hearing impaired children to learn. As any preschool class would be, they have new concepts to learn each month. For example in January we are working on simple words such as hat, help, cold, etc. This month they are reading about Froggy and how he wants to go outside in the cold weather. The children are read the same story every class and the goal is to help them learn to identify and dress froggy in shoes, pants, hat, scarf, shirt. The goal is to offer the kids three choices and ask them to pick out the item the teacher asks for. So for example this month Mollie has learned shoes really well. She does not know pants, shirt, socks, scarf or even hat (still working hard on this). After this is completed the parents leave and go into a viewing room in which we can watch the children without them seeing us and we can hear them. On any given day their therapy will be cooking in the kitchen, arts and crafts and using large motor skills.
I am proud to say that Mollie really enjoys cooking and there are lots of words and skills there that she has learned. One of her first words was "more" and more can be used in so many ways. She also can say "stir, turn, round and round, shake, shake, shake, cut, pour and open" As they say this is an area of play and work that is rich with vocabulary words.
Mollie has also learned to ride a tricycle in the halls of the school. There is so much room and such great toys to learn large motor skills with. She is such a champ and loves to ride her bike around at home. Thank goodness for rubber wheels I say. She has completed this skill faster than Madie did and Nate. Spring shall be fun with everyone finally riding bikes.
By the end of two hours at school the kids are worn out and ready to go home. Parents come back into the classroom and sing the "Bye Bye Song" in which we learn to say our names and the concept of going home. It also teaches the children to sit and be attentive and prepare them for age 3 schooling.
Each month we receive a progress report of what words Mollie has a concept of, can say and then what she knows spontaneously without being prompted. This is the most important because it means she really gets it! I think the best word she has learned this month alone is "help". This has cut down on so much of her frustration when she cannot do something by herself. She has learned to come to us and ask for help to put on her jacket, put on her tutu, just any number of things. Wow, help is a powerful word.
Mollie also has a therapist with whom she meets on Mondays for one hour of private therapy. Mrs. Angela is Mollie's buddy and biggest cheerleader. At the same time Mollie is most frustrated with her because Mrs. Angela makes her work. There is no rest for the weary on Mondays and Mollie learns so much in this one hour. The concepts she learns are in tune to her classroom learning just more in depth and this really helps Mollie to hit home with her words.
I think Mrs. Angela is a good therapist for me as well sometimes. She is so great about talking to me and helping me to understand this all. She is great about answering our questions and prompting us to ask questions. She is also our biggest cheerleader and never hesitates to tell us how good we are doing with Mollie. She really attributes Mollie's progress to us. How she can say this I don't know, we would have no clue how to go about teaching Mollie if it were not for these gifted women. They are so compassionate and are really doing the work they love and it shows.
If they should read this blog - kudos to you gals because you are making a difference in Mollie's world and our world. Thank you!
Mollie has two teachers Mrs. Emily and Ms. Carrie. Both are so great at what they do and so caring. I cannot begin to imagine how exhausted they must be at the end of the day when working with the kids. They are so patient and so kind and really work hard to teach the toddlers language and every day skills. This can be a chore some days as there are five kids in Mollie's class. Mollie will be one of two who have the cochlear implants. The other children have various hearing devices.
On a typical day in the classroom we sing the good morning song and the children have a picture of themselves on the board and they are learning to find the picture of themselves and move it to school from home. Sounds simple enough but this is a real chore to get Mollie to understand that the picture is "me". Meaning she has to understand the concept of me. We work on pointing to pictures and saying "that's me". Pronouns are very challenging for hearing impaired children to learn. As any preschool class would be, they have new concepts to learn each month. For example in January we are working on simple words such as hat, help, cold, etc. This month they are reading about Froggy and how he wants to go outside in the cold weather. The children are read the same story every class and the goal is to help them learn to identify and dress froggy in shoes, pants, hat, scarf, shirt. The goal is to offer the kids three choices and ask them to pick out the item the teacher asks for. So for example this month Mollie has learned shoes really well. She does not know pants, shirt, socks, scarf or even hat (still working hard on this). After this is completed the parents leave and go into a viewing room in which we can watch the children without them seeing us and we can hear them. On any given day their therapy will be cooking in the kitchen, arts and crafts and using large motor skills.
I am proud to say that Mollie really enjoys cooking and there are lots of words and skills there that she has learned. One of her first words was "more" and more can be used in so many ways. She also can say "stir, turn, round and round, shake, shake, shake, cut, pour and open" As they say this is an area of play and work that is rich with vocabulary words.
Mollie has also learned to ride a tricycle in the halls of the school. There is so much room and such great toys to learn large motor skills with. She is such a champ and loves to ride her bike around at home. Thank goodness for rubber wheels I say. She has completed this skill faster than Madie did and Nate. Spring shall be fun with everyone finally riding bikes.
By the end of two hours at school the kids are worn out and ready to go home. Parents come back into the classroom and sing the "Bye Bye Song" in which we learn to say our names and the concept of going home. It also teaches the children to sit and be attentive and prepare them for age 3 schooling.
Each month we receive a progress report of what words Mollie has a concept of, can say and then what she knows spontaneously without being prompted. This is the most important because it means she really gets it! I think the best word she has learned this month alone is "help". This has cut down on so much of her frustration when she cannot do something by herself. She has learned to come to us and ask for help to put on her jacket, put on her tutu, just any number of things. Wow, help is a powerful word.
Mollie also has a therapist with whom she meets on Mondays for one hour of private therapy. Mrs. Angela is Mollie's buddy and biggest cheerleader. At the same time Mollie is most frustrated with her because Mrs. Angela makes her work. There is no rest for the weary on Mondays and Mollie learns so much in this one hour. The concepts she learns are in tune to her classroom learning just more in depth and this really helps Mollie to hit home with her words.
I think Mrs. Angela is a good therapist for me as well sometimes. She is so great about talking to me and helping me to understand this all. She is great about answering our questions and prompting us to ask questions. She is also our biggest cheerleader and never hesitates to tell us how good we are doing with Mollie. She really attributes Mollie's progress to us. How she can say this I don't know, we would have no clue how to go about teaching Mollie if it were not for these gifted women. They are so compassionate and are really doing the work they love and it shows.
If they should read this blog - kudos to you gals because you are making a difference in Mollie's world and our world. Thank you!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Part 2
Okay, I think I am starting to get the hang of this now and I actually have been able to download a picture. I am so excited!! I think I like this new technology.
For those who decide to read this, I am going to revert back to my hand written journal. Please know that if this seems repetitive or not all that you really want to get into, you can just skip to the archive you would like to read about. Just please know that I am doing this for Mollie and know that she will have this as her own personal story to refer to .
June 10, 2007 - We found out this week that Mollie has severe hearing loss. We are just beginning to process and understand some of what we will be facing as a family. There is so much to learn and understand. The important thing to remember is that Mollie is still who she is and still developing into a funny, fun, little girl. She will do just fine through this process. She has been living with this and making her own little adjustments w/o even realizing she cannot hear. I am just so thankful that we are getting this now while she is so young and we can start to help her so that she can learn to talk.
From June 6 - September 12, 2007 - we had about 15 different doctors appointments to get Mollie diagnosed and try and determine what may have caused her hearing loss and when it could have all started. June 13th she had her first visit to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for a CT Scan for which they had to sedate her to stay still. We learned that we would need to meet with a geneticist and an ENT to get a diagnosis. I really did wonder if all these appointments were that necessary. It wasn't until after we went through all the hearing tests that we met with the doctor again to learn that Mollie did have all the bones in her ears. Yes, we have bones in our ears and we have tiny hairs in our ears that help with the vibration to carry sound. We learned that if those hairs die off they are not replaced and hearing loss occurs. After all the appointments we still don't really know what caused the loss but it has been labeled as "sensorineural hearing loss" .
The day that Mollie was given her hearing aids we were told that she was a possible candidate for the Cochlear implants. She was severely hearing impaired in both ears. Sounds that you and I might take for granted were not things that she heard. She did not hear water running, birds chirping , people talking, a dog barking. There is a very good graph called an Audiogram it shows the "banana" of hearing - this is how a typical healthy person would hear. You and I would hear at a level of 20 decibels. Mollie could not hear it unless it was at a level of 70 decibels or higher. So to give you an idea she could hear it if it were a lawnmower, airplane, drums or jackhammer.
They diagnosed Mollie as being a newborn as far as her hearing and speech and language development but physically she was 2 years old. We were told we would be working very hard and getting her a lot of therapy. She had to learn to start wearing her hearing aids at all waking hours. Boy that was fun! Mollie did not want to wear them and it took some control from Mommy and Daddy to have her learn that this gadget on her head was not going away. I think Daddy and I were just as frustrated as she was. There were definitely some tears shed. We did learn however that M&M's were a good reward for Mollie if she would put them in. Let's just say we consumed a lot of chocolate for awhile. Thankfully Mollie is motivated by food! On 6/25 I wrote in my journal - "Day four with hearing aids. She is making progress and wearing them for longer periods. We have started using M&M's to reward her for wearing them. This works! Aron w/ TEIS is working on the financial plan to get Mollie qualified for speech and language therapy at BWC. "
Journal entry 7/18/2007 - Met w/ Dr. Goudy and referred to Dr. Kaylee for evaluation on CI. Dr. Kaylee was the original surgeon we were to work with. 7/25/07 Mollie is a good candidate structurally for implants. We will need to wait for Cathy Hayes and team meat for Mollie's approval for CI's.
It was during this time that we started to prepare for the possibility of Mollie receiving implants. We flooded ourselves with information and started attending the parent support group at Bill Wilkerson. It was also during this time I learned about the Toddler Group offered 3 days a week at the Mama Lere Hearing School. I knew in my heart this is what Mollie needed to be doing because all the research we read and what we had been told was that the most imperative time for developing speech and language is before the age of 5. We knew we were already very late to this party.
All summer I worked the phone and appointments, talked to anyone that I could and I think just through pure effort was able to get Mollie a place in the toddler group. I felt as if I had run a marathon. But there was success as she started school on September 12th. She also started her individual therapy.
For those who decide to read this, I am going to revert back to my hand written journal. Please know that if this seems repetitive or not all that you really want to get into, you can just skip to the archive you would like to read about. Just please know that I am doing this for Mollie and know that she will have this as her own personal story to refer to .
June 10, 2007 - We found out this week that Mollie has severe hearing loss. We are just beginning to process and understand some of what we will be facing as a family. There is so much to learn and understand. The important thing to remember is that Mollie is still who she is and still developing into a funny, fun, little girl. She will do just fine through this process. She has been living with this and making her own little adjustments w/o even realizing she cannot hear. I am just so thankful that we are getting this now while she is so young and we can start to help her so that she can learn to talk.
From June 6 - September 12, 2007 - we had about 15 different doctors appointments to get Mollie diagnosed and try and determine what may have caused her hearing loss and when it could have all started. June 13th she had her first visit to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for a CT Scan for which they had to sedate her to stay still. We learned that we would need to meet with a geneticist and an ENT to get a diagnosis. I really did wonder if all these appointments were that necessary. It wasn't until after we went through all the hearing tests that we met with the doctor again to learn that Mollie did have all the bones in her ears. Yes, we have bones in our ears and we have tiny hairs in our ears that help with the vibration to carry sound. We learned that if those hairs die off they are not replaced and hearing loss occurs. After all the appointments we still don't really know what caused the loss but it has been labeled as "sensorineural hearing loss" .
The day that Mollie was given her hearing aids we were told that she was a possible candidate for the Cochlear implants. She was severely hearing impaired in both ears. Sounds that you and I might take for granted were not things that she heard. She did not hear water running, birds chirping , people talking, a dog barking. There is a very good graph called an Audiogram it shows the "banana" of hearing - this is how a typical healthy person would hear. You and I would hear at a level of 20 decibels. Mollie could not hear it unless it was at a level of 70 decibels or higher. So to give you an idea she could hear it if it were a lawnmower, airplane, drums or jackhammer.
They diagnosed Mollie as being a newborn as far as her hearing and speech and language development but physically she was 2 years old. We were told we would be working very hard and getting her a lot of therapy. She had to learn to start wearing her hearing aids at all waking hours. Boy that was fun! Mollie did not want to wear them and it took some control from Mommy and Daddy to have her learn that this gadget on her head was not going away. I think Daddy and I were just as frustrated as she was. There were definitely some tears shed. We did learn however that M&M's were a good reward for Mollie if she would put them in. Let's just say we consumed a lot of chocolate for awhile. Thankfully Mollie is motivated by food! On 6/25 I wrote in my journal - "Day four with hearing aids. She is making progress and wearing them for longer periods. We have started using M&M's to reward her for wearing them. This works! Aron w/ TEIS is working on the financial plan to get Mollie qualified for speech and language therapy at BWC. "
Journal entry 7/18/2007 - Met w/ Dr. Goudy and referred to Dr. Kaylee for evaluation on CI. Dr. Kaylee was the original surgeon we were to work with. 7/25/07 Mollie is a good candidate structurally for implants. We will need to wait for Cathy Hayes and team meat for Mollie's approval for CI's.
It was during this time that we started to prepare for the possibility of Mollie receiving implants. We flooded ourselves with information and started attending the parent support group at Bill Wilkerson. It was also during this time I learned about the Toddler Group offered 3 days a week at the Mama Lere Hearing School. I knew in my heart this is what Mollie needed to be doing because all the research we read and what we had been told was that the most imperative time for developing speech and language is before the age of 5. We knew we were already very late to this party.
All summer I worked the phone and appointments, talked to anyone that I could and I think just through pure effort was able to get Mollie a place in the toddler group. I felt as if I had run a marathon. But there was success as she started school on September 12th. She also started her individual therapy.
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