Wednesday, May 21, 2008

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!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful family you have.
We have a daughter, Allison who has a profound hearing loss, she was implanted in Jan 2005 and got her 2nd on April 21st of this year. She will be heading to K in the fall in a typcial oral/hearing classroom.
While we are a little further down the CI road, we remember well the early moments in Allison's journey to hearing.
Drew's mom will be a great source of support and help to you.
If we can be of any help, please let us know. Check out our blog @ krullfamily5.blogspot.com
We wish you well as you start your journey.

elizabeth said...

Hi! I am one of Dr. Morrison's students! You are in good hands!

Welcome to the DFW cochlear implant commmunity!

My friend, Rachel, and I, collaborate on the website: www.cochlearimplantonline.com. Rachel has bilateral CIs and is now a successful college student. There are lots of great videos of Rachel (and her younger sister, who is also a bilateral CI user) and tons of other resources and information. I hope it will give you a glimpse of all that is possible for your son in the future! The sky's the limit!

Hope to meet you at AG Bell 2008!

Anonymous said...

Bill & Shelly - I saw your site and am in the process of reading your story - it's amazing - as all the CI stories I am reading are! I am just taken aback by all these success stories of deaf children! I felt like we just moved to Germany and didn't know the language or anyone to help us, but now I feel a part of a community! I would love to keep in touch and will email you soon!

Elizabeth - I would love for you to contact me and for us to meet! I saw your website before I even met Dr. Morrison and was inspired! I am very anxious to become part of the DFW CI community and would love any insight you could share! I even told Dr. Morrison that I would be more than willing to start putting together a Fort Worth parent support group, if there's not one already! Would love to chat with you! My email is mjk_tjk@yahoo.com.

Anonymous said...

I would be more than happy to "talk" to you via email. Here is our email address: krull5@wowway.com.
Please feel free to contact us. We ar here to help in anyway we can.

Shelly

Mom to Toes said...

Hi Tammy,

I just found your comment on Erin's blog. I am so glad you found us.

I only had a chance to read your first blog entry so far, but I have to say it put me in tears!

I'll be reading more later tonight. I'm looking forward to getting to know Aiden more.

Drew's Mom said...

Looks like you are off to a great start! I just sent you an email, so please, if you need anything, I'd be glad to help.

Drew's Mom