Nolan wishes he were big enough to ice skate! We live in a rather rural area, which means there are few children who have a hearing loss. Most of the kids in our area are the only children in their entire school district who wear hearing aids or cochlear implants, so it is nice when we can get the whole group together. Nolan is (by far) the youngest of the kids, but he definitely enjoys all the attention he gets from the older kids. As he gets older, he will have the opportunity to socialize with other kids who have "ear gear."
Matt also enjoys the outings- he actually started ice skating all by himself last night!
In our area, we don't have preschools dedicated to kids with a hearing loss or school districts that are used to dealing with hard of hearing and deaf children. Thanks to a local Teacher of the Deaf, however, we do have a social group. And that makes Nolan a very happy boy!
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Do any of the kids sign? Does Nolan get a chance to meet other kids who use ASL? CODA's maybe? I think that would also be very benifical for him.
Yep! There's the whole gamut there. We have some adult Deaf that come to the meetings, and we have kids who range from hard of hearing (like Nolan and another girl) to a few who attend a residential school for the deaf in Buffalo. It is really neat, because there is a lot of variety and we have several TOD's that come to the group as well. The kids all have the ability to sign and speak.
I would love for Ben to hang out with other kids with "ear gear". I don't think it's something he thinks about yet, but within a year or two he'll probably start to wonder why he's the only one. Maybe at that point I'll either try to get down to Jamestown for Jr. Deaf Club or even try to organize something like that here.
Oh yay!
Tate never seemed bothered by being the only kid around with "ear gear", but he sure lights up when we meet other kids, especially.
The first time we went to "Deaf Camp" he was just amazed!
Nolan certainly doesn't think about it yet! Even Matt doesn't think about it, except for the fact that he desperately wants "hear ayes" like his brother.
It is fun to get together with other parents and kids, though. And the kids are so smart, funny, and wonderful, that it makes me excited to see a glimpse into the future!
How excellent! That's one heck of a TOD you've got there!
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