Meeting Helen Morrison, Ph.D., Cert. AVT

Today I had an appt. with Helen Morrison, a TCU professor and well known certified auditory-verbal therapist (AVT). I called Ms. Morrison upon the recommendation of a guy Mike works with. Our initial conversation was very informational - one of questions and answers and I knew from the caring in her voice that I wanted HER to teach my son to hear and talk. Before I talked to her I asked around - everyone in the deaf/hoh community here in the DFW area knows her and talked very highly about her (in fact Aiden's ENT said we'd be very lucky if we could get her)! She usually is monitoring her grad. students while they complete the therapy sessions. I wanted HER to teach Aiden. So in our second conversation I asked her "will you teach my son, will you help us teach our baby to hear and talk?" and she said yes! So today, Aiden and I went to meet with Ms. Morrison and it was more than I imagined! She asked if Aiden could be part of some reserach she is doing, this way she can meet with us for therapy once a week, starting next week!!!! The whole meeting was wonderful! I already feel a connection with her and can tell she loves what she does, I can tell it's in her heart! My dad always told me to follow my heart and my heart feels Ms. Morrison is going to be very special in our life!!

I was given some great information and some more parents to contact along with some things to start working with Aiden on. I get asked a lot "what kind of therapy can they do with a 2 month old?!?" One thing they do at this age is teach me how to communicate with him. Ms. Morrison taught me today to emphasize my verbs and adjectives with him and to be very narrarative with my voice as I talk to him. As she said, "Every moment is a teachable one!" She was also excited to see Aiden loved his "binky". He is definitely my "binky baby"! He always has to have it! She told me to watch his sucking on it as I talk to him, if he stops sucking it typically means he's reacting to me communicating with him! Of course I had to test this out all day, and guess what!?! Not only does he stop sucking when I'm talking to him, he smiles and coos back! I've known all along that he understands his mommy! Anyone around me listening to me talk to him may think I'm a bit crazy, but Aiden loves it and that's all that matters!

So, we will start therapy next week with Helen and then the week after with Becky at Cook Children's in Fort Worth! What a great day!