Nancy Vincent sent us this wonderful shot of Li-Li and Samantha playing together at the Parent Infant Program. The wee ones received their cochlear implants a week apart this past fall.

Today was a big day at speech class, and sadly I missed it! But isn’t this the most wonderful email to get (from Christine, our amazing speech language pathologist at The Learning Center for the Deaf, who is working on Li-Li’s aural rehabilitation):

I had a very nice session with Li-Li today. She was very interactive and engaged with me. She imitated 5 out of 6 of the Ling sounds while playing with the toys (not “oo,” but she let me squeeze her little cheeks to help her round her lips, and she enjoyed squeezing mine while I modeled the “oo” sound). She even made a nice approximation of “s,” which sounded different from her “sh” sound!

Also, while putting the toys back in the box, she waited while I produced the sound for each of the toys before putting each one in the box, and she identified 5 out of 6 of them (for some reason she didn’t pick up the baby when I said “sh”??). While playing with other toys, she imitated “buh buh buh buh” for the sound of a boat, and she pointed to a picture of a boat when I made that sound. She also said “eh” in response to multiple spoken models for the word “egg.” She requested “more” by signing and saying “mo” several times during our session.

Another wonderful thing is that Li-Li was really babbling more today. She is now mixing different consonant sounds in one string of syllables (e.g., “bababa, dada, ba”). This is a great sign because it demonstrates that she is playing with her articulators and figuring out how to vary sounds within one “utterance,” which is more sophisticated than reduplicated babbling (i.e., the same syllable repeated such as “bababa”). These are typical progressions that babies go through on the way to learning to say meaningful words. Li-Li just has a head start because she is already using several meaningful words!

She said “uh-oh” several times today when objects fell on the floor. She also imitated the word “bubbles” by saing “buh buh.” Li-Li also demonstrated comprehension of some spoken utterances that were presented without sign support. For example, while looking at the strip of “ABC” pictures on the wall, she pointed to the duck when I said, “Where’s the duck? Quack quack quack.”

When it was time to leave I bombarded her with the word “sticker” before I produced the sign. I then said it many more times while signing “STICKER” when she was choosing her sticker. Finally, while walking back to daycare, I was carrying her so I couldn’t sign, and I said, “Where’s your sticker?” and she brought her hand around from behind her back to show me her sticker.

Thought you might like a little snapshot of our session (this is basically what my weekly notes consist of :) FYI). Enjoy your day, and I hope all goes well with the adoption finalization tomorrow.

(NECN: Framingham, Mass.) - The Lady Ghosts play basketball at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Massachusetts. The women are battling it out in the New England Prep Schools Tournament, and they are the only deaf team in the brackets.

She knew Li-Li already and asked if I work with Li-Li (as in, speech therapist, teacher, or nanny, etc.) and was quite surprised when I laughed and said, oh no, I’m her mom. And then I thought, of course: Li-Li doesn’t look much like me, now, does she? And I explained and signed that we had adopted her from China.

But that wasn’t it. She explained her surprise, while still eyeing me warily: “I see Li-Li every week, and I’ve seen her with her –well, I thought it was her mother.”

“Oh, I take a vacation day every Monday to attend the program and her speech sessions, but unfortunately I can’t take off Wednesday, too, ” I said, as I gave Li-Li a hug goodbye and got up to head into Boston, to work. “On Wednesday she usually gets dropped off by one of her teachers.”

“No, this is someone who stays with her,” she said, stone-faced.

As Li-Li and I were leaving her class’s building at the school, we heard what sounded like a full-blown rave in progress from the gym nearby.Or rather, I heard it and she felt the drums thumping: it was raining hard and I’d slipped off her processor already for the drive home (our car seat has great big ‘wings’ that surround her head for safety, and these tend to knock off the transmitter (the disk-like piece that’s attached by magnet to the implant within her head) when she turns back and forth.

So, we stepped out of the rain and took a seat on the bleachers (which was great fun for her). I tried to explain the rules, but I don’t think she got it. (Come on, Li-Li, step it up a bit, you’re practically 2!)  She did lots of hand waving with each basket scored and foul shot made, but I don’t think she followed the ref’s signs at all. And I’m sure she couldn’t tell a technical foul from an inbound violation. What a strange experience not to have the crowd cheering the action verbally. But the drums were wild!

We could only stay for a little more than a quarter before she got a bit antsy and wanted to either empty her lunchbox or make a run for the court, but we had great fun (except when the bone-shaking buzzer rang at the end of the quarters — so unbelievably loud, my ears still ring a day later).