Liam had his first day of school this past Wednesday. He only goes Mondays and Wednesdays, but will eventually be bumped up to Fridays as well. I'm a little anxious to add the Fridays because I think he really needs the extra help. The more we can give him now, the better.
One thing they really worked on with him is keeping his hearing aids in. This is not a new problem. I've shared it lots of times in the past, but it has gotten much worse. He will not leave the blasted things alone for more than thirty seconds. When I went to pick him up, his audiologist mentioned that they'd had some success using a bonnet to keep the aids in his ears. (Apparently he wore the teachers out refusing to keep them in. Ummm...I guess I won't say I told you so.)
The bonnet reminded me that we have the hannah andersson pilot cap from last year. I knew right where it was, so I pulled it out for him. Voila! A good twenty minutes with the aids in. The really exciting part?! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LITTLE LIFE, HE TURNED WHEN I SAID HIS NAME!!! I didn't have to yell it, stomp on the floor, flash the lights, wave my hands, or stand on my head while sending him morse code smoke signals. He just turned.
The hat isn't quite the right size. He is able to get his naughty little fingers up in there and take out the aids, but some of my amazing friends are working on a cap that does the same thing, but is bigger to prevent him from attacking the aids. (Little stinker!)
Anyway, I made a video so the girls who are working on this project could see just what I meant. As you can see, he's doing great! He's so happy, and is finally trying to interact a little bit with us. You can also see that he's learned to clap for himself. This is a very new thing, and it's wonderful for him. He does something he thinks is good and then claps while looking to us for validation. If he made a good choice, we clap back. If not, he gets the "grumpy" look and a big NO. He hasn't quite figured out that it's negative feedback sometimes, but the fact that he wants any feedback from other humans at all is huge.
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