Zemiel's Hearing Progress

Well believe it or not, (we find it hard to believe), but Zem can now hear! Already he is trying to mimic the sounds that we make with his toy animals. He seems to hear sound effects and background noise better than our voices. Sounds that he recognizes include, clapping, squeaky balls, "quack", and "moo". We have been concentrating on the long vowel sounds that are found in animal performatives. eg. grOWl, mOO, bAA, etc. We have been very encouraged by the speed at which he is attempting to imitate the sounds.

He has begun to realize that he always gets attention when he takes his "ears" off. Cheeky boy. He still gets excited when we put them on though and we have been trying to teach him to put them back on himself...but that will take a bit more time.

We will also be starting our Auslan training in the next week and we are very excited that the next stage in our learning and Zem's schooling has started. At the moment, Zem's schedule involves the following: Monday - SCIC mapping and learning sessions, Tuesday - Gymnastics, Wednesday - schooling with itinerant teacher, and Thursday - RIDBC early learning centre schooling session. All in all, it means that Sharlene is going to be kept very busy trying to keep up with all these appointments on top of what she already does at home.

In an effort to give Sharlene more mobility, I am going to travel to work via train and bicycle this year. At the moment it may not be so imperative, but when the new bub arrives, it is going to be important that she can use the car when she needs to, so we might as well get started early.

School starts on Wednesday. I am teaching Year 2 this year, which will involve a big change in thinking on my part from my previous Year 4 students. It is exciting to contemplate the possibilities of this year. God willing, it will be a happy year.