Sixteen.

Sixteen.  That's the number of hours a week Alex gets formal therapy.  Sixteen.  Yeah.  And if you think that's a lot, the number will be thirty one (!!!) come September.  But right now, let's focus on sixteen.

I talk a lot about Alex's hearing loss.  I know I do.  But there is a reason for it.  It's something that requires constant thought.  Constant consideration.  Constant accommodation.  And even though sixteen is the number of hours of formal training, almost everything we do all day long is some sort of therapy.   Our lives changed when we found out about his hearing loss, and therapy life is our new normal.  But let's just talk about his formal therapy, shall we?

Looking quite dapper for school.

Alex attends an oral deaf school M-F from 9am-noon.  During that time, he has daily one on one speech therapy.  He gets one on one physical therapy once a week for his low tone and one on one occupational therapy two times a week to focus on his low oral tone.  During school he also gets group instruction with a class that varies between 4 and 8 hearing loss peers (whom I've grown to immensely care about and love their parents too)!  Group instruction ranges from music therapy, circle time, craft time, breakfast/snack time and gym time - all with a focus on hearing loss.  There are a lot of demands placed on Alex and his peers.  He's not even 2.5 years old, but their group instruction often lasts for 20-30 minutes.  They are asked to listen, speak and follow directions.  If they want a banana with breakfast, they needs to ask for it.  And for a deaf kid just figuring out the this hearing world, it's not always an easy task.

Some days, Alex rocks these demands.  Each kid brings home a daily sticker chart, and I think we are currently on a four day streak of getting all his stickers.  Some days, Alex can't stand up to the expectations placed on him and he has a bad day.  Luckily, we are seeing more good days than bad, but the bad are still bad.  I can only imagine having all these demands placed on you all the time can get frustrating, and I can understand there are days he's just not in the mood to be therapied (a word I made up).

Alex and his SLP take a picture every day and send it to me as a reward for having a good session.

In addition to his oral deaf school, Alex also sees a PROMPT therapist once a week in the evening.  Because Alex has low oral tone, he is missing many sounds, and our PROMPT therapist uses physical touching of Alex's face to help him learn how to make sounds.  Andy calls this his most stressful hour of the week, as Alex often isn't a fan of the face touching.  So sometimes the session goes well and sometimes we are paying out of pocket for him to be angry for an entire session.

 So, it sounds like a lot doesn't it?  And it sounds like it may be a bit too much for Alex, right?  These are thoughts I have every.single.day.  BUT - when you're dealing with hearing loss, you're dealing with speech delay.  I mean, Alex was almost one year old when he heard sound for the first time.  And even when he heard it, his brain wasn't even sure what it was.  He may be almost 2.5 years old, but he's not even 1.5 years old hearing.  That's quite the gap.  And all research says that if you want to close that gap, you need to work hard in the formative years.  So that's what we are doing.  We are working our butts off now, to allow Alex less obstacles and struggles in the future.

But you know what?  Alex likes school.  Sure, Alex has bad days, but for the most part he is excited about going to school.  I'm not sure he likes PROMPT even though he does like saying his therapist's name (Leah), but we feel it's working.  Alex has recently started using the M sound and just over the weekend, we heard some B and P experimentation for the very first time ever!   And the most exciting part?  Alex is talking!  He says new words every.single.day and his progress is very measurable.  Sure, he has some major clarity issues, but there is no doubt he has chosen spoken language as his first choice of communication.  He says his friends' names from school, he tells us basically what everything in the house is - - - he's even starting to put a few words together.  And each new word or sentence is a huge celebration to us.  Because we know how incredibly hard he is working to get here.

Andy & I are in a facebook group for parents with children with cochlear implants.  There are thousands of people in this group with children at all stages of the cochlear implant process.  We see kids just getting diagnosed, getting implanted and activated, at Alex's level, kids in school and kids who are fully grown.  And one of the things Andy & I have noticed from kids who have had such a therapy rich life is that they often do very well in school and end up becoming quite successful in life despite their obvious obstacles.  And I totally get it.  Alex has grown up in an environment of high demands, lots of structure and a constant push to improve. Let's be real -  sixteen hours of his life each week is dedicated to FORMAL therapy alone.   If he can tackle these things at age 2, he's going to be able to tackle anything.