Bilateral Soundbooth Testing

Today we had another appointment up at Hopkins, this time to see how Aiden was doing with his left ear after 2 weeks post (re)activation. This was the first time since his left ear was ever activated that we got to see booth test results for this ear.

We've been seeing problems at home and therapy with Aiden responding to the /s/ sound since his left CI was activated. /s/ is a very high frequency sound (greater than 4,000Hz) and is heard around 25 db. We knew from Aiden's last soundbooth on his right CI (which was done the same day they reactivated his left CI), that he was hearing between 15 and 20db across all frequencies. We confirmed today that his right ear is still doing great, but that we did need to fix his map on his left CI.

I have to say though, that I am still VERY impressed at Aiden's results! For his left ear, he tested pure tones between 20 and 30 db! For speech awareness threshold, he tested at 25 dB in his left and 15 dB in his right. His left ear audiogram sorta looks like a hill - he tested at 30 dB at 250 Hz, rose to 20/25 dB from 500 to 2,000 Hz, then dipped again to 30 dB at 4,000 Hz (this is where the /s/ sound falls). So his map was changed to adjust for these dips at 250 & 4,000 Hz. Aiden's audiologist also gave us two other programs to work with in case we still don't see much response to /s/ or /m/ in the next week. He did respond right away to both sounds in her office though.

All in all, Aiden's been doing great and we continue to be amazed by our little man everyday! Since his left CI was activated two weeks ago, we've really seen some good progress. For example, his grandma came in town to visit, and before Aiden ever saw her she called his name. I figured he'd hear her voice, but look at me since it was just another female voice. But he turned around and looked right at her and smiled! We've also noticed that he's recognizing sounds from longer distances. Just over two weeks ago, his hearing bubble was about three feet. Now, he'll turn towards sounds or voices six plus feet away! I don't know if it's that the right ear is just taking off, or if it's the help of the left ear, but we're amazed! We are so happy we went with bilateral CIs!

Now we're good to go for a month! It'll be nice not having to drive up to the hospital for mappings every week or two. When we go again in the beginning of June, Aiden will go in the soundbooth and we'll make any mapping adjustments as necessary at that time.