Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Testing the Hearing of the Selectively Mute

I worried about this test. I worried about how Olivia would communicate with a stranger to let him/her know she (Olivia) could hear.

I shouldn't have.

The technician was so kind. She was very patient and willing to work with Olivia and learn Olivia's method of communication.

I let the tech know from the start that Olivia tends to be a little difficult when it comes to talking to strangers.

The tech decided that the raised hand method would work best. She also decided to just test the normal hearing levels and skip the tests for the higher and lower frequencies.

At first, Olivia was reluctant to raise her hand when she heard the beep. But the tech was patient enough that Olivia got over her initial shyness. The tech did say that Olivia didn't raise her hand until the beep stopped rather than raising it when the beep started.

After the exam, the doctor came in and I think he was confused about why we were even there. He said that O's ears look perfect. Her hearing tested as perfectly normal (what a lovely word when describing one of O's abilities.)

I explained about her selective mutism diagnosis and that we were there just to make sure that her hearing was part of her speech issue. We were already pretty sure it wasn't but wanted medical proof of that. He said that he couldn't even see scarring from the tubes she'd had inserted when she was eight months old. That's good news too.

I think her speech therapist will be thrilled to learn that Olivia found a way to communicate with the tech. That's what we're after, in the long run, finding ways for Olivia to communicate. Actually talking would be great and I have no doubt that we'll get there but we can only take one step at a time and this is an excellent step.

I'm reallly proud of Olivia for how well she did today. She was very brave and very determined to get through the hearing test. This was one of those moments when I couldn't be her voice and so she found a way to speak for herself. How amazing is this girl of mine?

1 comment:

Julie said...

Love, love, love!! I'm so darned proud of her!