C has had all of his evaluations and, since he officially turned three last week, has been dismissed from the ECI program. As we expected, the school district recommended that he attend their all day, five day a week preschool program for children who are hard of hearing. We declined. They offered to let him attend part time. After much discussion, we declined that as well. Their last offer was walk in speech therapy and AI therapy. This one was a bit tougher.
We have pretty much reached the conclusion that we are going to give up on C's hearing aids, at least for now. They are not showing any real signs of helping and he continues to seriously dislike using them. There is also the issue of forcing him to try and be something he isn't...a hearing person. There is a lot of debate in the deaf/hard of hearing community about hearing aids. As with cochlear implants, it is often said that it is best left up to each person if they want to try some type of device to improve their hearing. Clearly if we are not going to push the hearing aids, AI therapy is a non-issue. AI therapy is designed to help people learn to listen with their devices. Without the hearing aids, it is unlikely that Collin's speech will ever improve. We are fine with this as we have come to the conclusion that C will most likely use ASL as his main communication. As a family, we have begun to learn to sign. It is going to be a slow process, but with hard work, we think we will be able to provide C with a quality education at home just like we do with our other two kids. So, we decided to turn down all therapy services from the schools.
In the meantime, I have been researching options for C once he is ready for school. There are not a lot of options out there, at least that I have found, but there are a few things. I am also probably going to find or make cards to hang around the house that shows the signs for things like letters, numbers, colors, and shapes, That is something that I normally would have been working with C on by now, but with his issues, he is a bit behind. We know he is smart, however, and will be able to catch him up.
