I know it’s been a while since a serious post from me. I recently did a LO for the Ultimate Scrapper Challenge asking to define who I am. (find the LO here.) While I didn’t make it to round three of the challenge, I have learned a few things this past week. I am strong.. and I can handle life’s curves, through the Grace of God.
This month we have been seriously looking into options for ds5’s next year of school. He’s due to start Kindergarten next year. But we can’t really afford private school anymore, and public school will eat him alive… So while looking into homeschool options, I started doing some testing of my own at home. I discovered he had a hard time with sounds. As per my mother’s advice, I took my DS5 to have his hearing checked. We have learned that he has seemingly lost the complete middle range in both ears. We are waiting for the audiologist appointmentin two weeks to find how much of his hearing is actually lost, and to figure out where to go from here.
He had been labeled ADHD at school, and from what I saw of his interactions with his friends, he seemed to be constantly angry. He was ignoring us more and more, and we thought it was typical kid stuff. It wasn’t until I really started testing what he knew about sounds, that I realized there was a problem.
But the good news is, we have found the problem. Hopefully we can get him properly diagnosed (Boy, what I wouldn’t give to have House be my son’s doctor right now!), find out what is causing the loss, and either reverse the loss, or find ways to help him learn to live with the loss. Until then, we are making sure that we physically touch him and get his attention, and then make him repeat the direction we give him. Ironically enough, this is a technique I learned from watching Nanny 911 (*note to self: find out when that show is on, if it is still on).
All of this just feels like the Hand of God leading me closer to homeschooling… I have no idea how I will do it. I must admit i’m terrified. I’ve already tried something like this once and failed miserably (i had a two year old preschool curriculm when he was younger)… But with the help of my family, my son, and my God, I know we can succeed.
Hi, If your son has a hearing loss, by law the state has to pay for private schooling since he will require more from his education, so when you do find out how much of loss he has, ask your doctor to give you informations on your local offices for help on schooling, informations, etc. There is something in every state too to help parents-about hearing loss. I am deaf and have a deaf son-my son has aggravations-which looks like bad behaviors but was frustrations due to communications barrier. As in my home we use our voice and lip read, sign very little so this was new to us having a deaf child, and dealing with all the therapies, etc. Now my son is profound deaf and is need of American Sign language to communicate, we have been through so many web sites, schooling, and local gov offices, therapies to learn more about him as his deafness is rare 5% and he has severe balance problems due to it.
Hopefully you find out answers soon and things get better for you and your son. Feel free to contact me if you ever need infos on hearing loss.
Sorry to hear about your son, Lorraine. My oldest son was diagnosed with a permanent hearing loss in one ear when he was four. For us it was his speech pattern that was a red flag. He was missing the middle sounds of the words! I’m so glad that you caught this now and will be able to either fix it or find a way for him to accommodate it. My oldest is doing fine now. He’s graduated from college, makes a nice living, and he even sings (off key) in a rock band. 🙂 Keep us updated.
I don’t know if I’d want House for a doctor, as he tends to nearly kill each patient every time. But hopefully you’ll be able to figure out what ails the poor bobbin and get him back on his feet!
thanks Debi! right now we’re waiting to see what the audiologist says…
thanks JD… I know House almost kills his patient every week…. but at least he finds the true cause every week too…. If more doctors actually cared about putting all the symptoms together, instead of just the current complaint… maybe more of us would be better off…