Taylor Talks!!

Taylor had her cochlear implants activated 4 weeks ago... On Wednesday, we thought we heard her say a word but weren't for sure. On Thursday, the same word came out - Mama!!!

Ha! A victory for Moms Everywhere! We all know that babies usually say Dada first. Not Taylor. She had a wonderful, amazing gift for her Mommy. Daddy was trying to take her away from me and she said "Mama"!

I will remember that moment for the rest of my life. The fact that my profoundly deaf daughter is learning to talk is a blessing so magnificent that I can barely comprehend it, certainly more than I dared to hope... all that we have done since the day we found out that she was deaf, June 8, was working toward this moment. And although we believed in the technology of the cochlear implant and the therapy that we have been working on, and even having met other children that have only had the implants for a few months or years, still I was prepared for nothing and afraid to hope for all...

In the booth testing prior to the mapping, Taylor easily heard a sound at 20 dB and a frequency of 1000 Hz. Above you can see that the normal range of hearing is 20 dB or below. Taylor is already hearing at normal levels!!

This week we went back for another mapping of the devices. "Mapping" is a programming process to fine-tune the CI for Taylor. She was a very patient little 16-month old, sitting for over an hour. She was playing with some toys, and they were trying to condition her to look at the puppy dogs or bears when she heard a sound. Instead, she just started repeating the sound back when she heard it. "Beep, Beep. Beep, beep." 22 electrodes on each side... The audiologist and therapist were laughing at Taylor's creativeness. It also made Jon and I wonder how often she was imitating us when we thought she was just making "noise."

Taylor is showing us her growth in receptive language. Today I asked her to pick up the diaper, and she picked it up. She also knows the word "shoes." (That's my girl!) We have been working with her on family pictures and names. She knows Daddy, Derek (brother), and Katie (our babysitter.) -- probably many others but this is just a start.