Monday, May 4, 2009

Keeping Those Darned Things In!

Nolan, showing off his excellent aid-removal skills for our SLP

Nolan has figured out how to circumvent the pilot cap. It gives us a head start, but doesn't keep those agile fingers from ripping out his aids. We also have a great little clip from Oticon that has an elastic band that goes around the hearing aid case. The clips worked wonderfully until last week.

I am proud to announce that Nolan is a prodigy- when it comes to fine motor skills! That little rascal has figured out how to remove that clip, the hearing aids, and disassemble all hearing aid parts in less than 30 seconds.

First, he reaches up under the pilot cap and yanks the earmolds out of his ears. Then he pulls on the lanyard until the clip disengages from his shirt. He pulls the whole thing down and out, then pulls the elastic bands off the BTE cases. As a final act, he rips the earmolds off the tubing and tosses them as far as his little arms can throw. Which turns out to be pretty far.


Our SLP demonstrates her excellent hearing aid replacement skills

I am no longer frustrated by this behavior. Just weary of it. We want to keep Nolan's aids a positive thing and avoid power struggles, but at the moment he is only wearing them for a few short hours out of every day. The tubing is now torqued because he has ripped the earmolds off so frequently.

I heard, once, that the hearing aid struggles decrease by the age of two. I can only hope.

5 comments:

Megan said...

So sorry! I am weary just reading of Nolan ripping off his aides.

Rachael said...

That is exactly what makes me so nervous. I think my son will do the exact same thing! Thank you for your comment on my blog. It's nice to know we are not alone!

Apraxia Mom said...

WOW. He is amazing. And yes, I think he is winning this power struggle right now. Only a few more months until the ripe ole age of two. Let's hope he'll give up!

Herding Grasshoppers said...

What do you do when he takes them out?

Julie

leah said...

I am weary! Rachael, I hope your little guy takes to his aids right away- Nolan's just going through a phase, lol. Hopefully he'll outgrow it shortly! Julie- we just replace them each time. After the first few tries we will give him a break for about 10 minutes before going at it again. We don't want it to turn into a power struggle! Oy.