Ears, letters, phonemes, school, etc

It's probably about time to do another update on how fantastic Ellis is *grin*. I was kind of on hiatus from all deaf blogging for a little while. The comments were starting to get too intense for me, which, to some extent, I allow to happen merely by posting on the world wide web. whatever. Lots of fun things to write about today.

On the CI front, Ellis is making excellent progress. He's just over three months since activation. We still don't have speech therapy with our county straightened out (my current pain in the neck), so we still go to CHOP (the hospital), which is cool, because I heart our speech therapist. And I will probably continue with her as long as possible, even if the stupid county sorts itself out.*

So, to make this totally pedantic. Words (or rather phonemes, in most cases) Ellis says consistently with meaning:
Aaah (for airplane),
Ooo (for "choo"/train),
bye-bye,
Oh (for the letter O, "open", "no", "go", and "home"),
Eee (for the letter "E" and "please),
Mmm (for "more"--and usually nestled in a variety of vowel combinations)
And he is saying "p" very well in the past few days, which is great. It's kind of hard, its being a silent plosive and all.
Lately he's also blowing silently for "s" and "sh". It's in there somewhere.
"B"/'buh' is still sort of default phoneme for whatever word he happens to be trying to say.

He doesn't really babble. They say the newly activated CI kids will go through a babbling process like babies do. But he doesn't really. He's trying to say real things. When he's playing and I'm narrating his world, he tries to copy what we're saying, which we were doing (still do) in sign, as well. Like if I say, "do you want some juice?" he'll say "Oooo" for "juice". And he incorporates his few words/phonemes into his play, saying 'bye-bye' to his toy car, making things fly "aaah", and begging to ride the train, "Ooooo".

The other day, I was sitting behind him, and I said "let's put on your shoes!" and he turned around and said "Ooo" and signed "train"--making the connection between the "ooo" sound in "shoe" and "choo". He's responding to sounds/his name pretty consistently, too. He sometimes will even come if I call from another room. And he will respond to "invisible" sounds, that have no immediate visual connection, like a noisy truck outside a block away. I'm so glad that we have sign, because I can tell him what he's hearing in a language he already understands. I can explain by speaking, too, but it's not going to have the same meaning this early in the auditory game.

The other cool thing is that he's making the separation between English and ASL. He either says it OR he signs it. He doesn't really do both, at least not after he's solidly got the word in his mouth. Sometimes he says it and then will sign it, but for the most part he keeps it separate. I think this is really cool, because it is classic bilingual skills.

The CI aside, though, it's fun to see him develop so much in his language skills. For instance, he is currently obsessed with the alphabet. Actually obsessed is understatement. He practically signs letters in his sleep!! Since about 20 months old, he's shown interest in the letters. (thanks to the ASL alphabet placemat that Chris's aunt got him. Thumbs up!!) At first, he only paid attention to some of the handshapes, and as he developed the dexterity to do more of them, he learned more of them. (The letter "Y" and "I" are particularly difficult for little hands.) It's funny, because he wouldn't sign the "Y" handshape words (like "play" or "telephone") until he made some deliberate approximation of the actual handshape.

Anyway, now he's made the connection between the English letter and the ASL handshape. And he never stops!!!! Every sign we have to spell out. All his books. Letters everywhere!!! He won't just draw anymore, he makes us write letters. He even tries to write letters by making tiny strokes on the paper and then signing to us which letter it apparently is. He even thinks numbers are letters, like "3" is "E", "4" is "A". Shapes are letters! (A triangle is "A", a circle is "O".) He now has a nice border around his room of the ASL/English letters. He loves it. Now if only we could get lower case.... Naturally, I'm thrilled at the first stage of literacy.

Ellis is doing a lot better in his adjustment to his 2yo preschool/playgroup class at PSD. He doesn't cry his head off when I leave anymore. He looks a little sad, but is usually happy to go in and play with his best friend.

This is a huge relief to me. Because I was having major separation anxiety. heh, heh. I'm really happy for him to be there. We want him at PSD next year, too, for the start of Official Preschool. I have no idea beyond that. Our plan is to take it year by year. Somehow, though, we want PSD to always be in the equation somewhere. It's really important for him to have Deaf friends and a consistent place in his social life in the Deaf community.

The bilingual step is a delicate dance.

* Speaking of stupid county. We had E's annual review for his IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) a few weeks ago. SIX people in our living room!!! The county coordinator, a person from the agency that pays for it, E's teacher of the deaf from PSD, our Deaf mentor from PSD, an ASL interpreter from PSD, and an educational consultant from CHOP (to help us sort out this speech therapy nightmare). Ellis blithely playing with his train in the middle of the floor. All this for a 2yo! Since he'll be 3 next summer, we also have start thinking about transitioning for the IEP (Individualized Education Plan). I'm so not looking forward to that process.