Connor's weight and height, at least from our home measurements, continue to improve. He's now solidly in the 40% on his length-for-weight percentiles which I think is just about perfect. Height predictors (though I'm iffy on how accurate those things are) are now saying he'll hit 5'3" at adulthood as opposed to the 4'10" the doctor told us at age two. He's really shot up like a weed! I'm so, so glad we made the decision to get the g-tube.On a totally different topic-- I was helping get a little girl with a CI acclimated at a local daycare center this morning, and I had Connor with me. One of the other kids in the class asked about Connor's hearing aids.
"Connor has a little trouble hearing," I explained, "so he wears his hearing aids to make things louder and help him hear. Your new friend (the little girl I was there for) also has trouble hearing, and she has a cochlear implant to help her. Connor has trouble walking too, so he has a wheelchair to help him move. Some of the other kids in here have other things to help them, like that little boy over there, who has glasses to help him see."
"And you're his mommy?" she asked, pointing to Connor.
"Yep!"
"Oh!" exclaimed the little girl. She studied me closely for a minute. "Well, what's wrong with you? Why don't you have hearing aids on?"
Kind of a different perspective on things.
~Jess
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5 comments:
I LOVE little kids. Their view on things is just wonderful. We were up at the oral-deaf school in Buffalo a while back and one of the kids looked at Matt (who is speech delayed, but has normal hearing) and kept asking, "where did his "ears" go?" He was definitely the odd man out!
The topic of kids' perspectives on assistive equipment has come up on the listenup listserve a few times. An intriguing and fairly common question is, "When I grow up, will I still need hearing aids?" The idea being that the kid has probably never seen an adult wearing hearing aids, and so figures it's something he or she will outgrow. There was a great post recently from the mother of a kid who was that week's "VIP" at school, and so all the other kids drew pictures of him. And they all included his hearing aids, as a matter of course, but they all also included details from his clothes, hair, etc. -- so clearly they see him primarily as just another kid, and the hearing aids are an important part but not a defining characteristic. Very cool.
Love this. Thanks for sharing.
Kids perspectives are always interesting and innocent. It was a great explanation to her by the way. Simple, truthful.
ah i always asked those questions about my hearing loss as a little kid
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