Next Steps After Concerns ... and a little "h"

After posting my concerns about Aiden's standstill I received a lot of great feedback, so first let me shout out a huge THANK YOU! All my CI mommy friends rock and it is so nice to know there is support/words of encouragement/advice out there from those who have been there done that! Second, these comments confirmed my inner mommy concerns, so I scheduled a meeting with the audiologist at Aiden's school for a second opinion.

The audiologist here did reassure me his audiogram was not bad, but that if he was in the 15db to 20db range, across all frequencies, that dropping to 25-30db, was something to definitely recheck. She also mentioned that she doesn't like to see anything less than 15 db as sounds can become distorted any lower than this. She's going to take a look at his maps (programs) and test him in the soundbooth. I love this place.

The school's OT also joined our meeting as they have concerns about Aiden's muscle tone and the fact that he's the only one in his class who is still not walking. They're not overly concerned, but want to evaluate him more and work with him to help him along.

Aiden's sister was a late walker, but her pediatrician was never concerned. She also never crawled, she walked on her knees to get around ... also, no concerns. What I've learned is that skipping the crawling stage can hinder fine motor skill development and muscle tone for years to come. To this day Kailyn's handwriting is not that great, her muscle tone is weak (she's in gymnastics to help this), and even the muscles in her eyes are weak (we just increased her glasses Rx for the second time in 6 months). I wish I had known then what I know now. I'm sure she would've qualified for OT services and there's a good possibility she still may. Just another battle I'm working my mommy magic on.

Anyway, I say all this because if this is a service Aiden's school provides and Aiden will benefit from it (even though this is something else we have to add to our plate of craziness), we're definitely going to take advantage of it. Again, love this place.

I have to say my concerns for Aiden aren't that he's not doing well. I believe my little man is doing a wonderful job with his CIs and coming along beautifully. But I feel we're stuck and I am truly concerned about his map. I need to validate if my concerns are right or wrong. If they're right, we'll get it fixed and move on. If they're wrong, then I will see what I can do differently and continue to work hard on next steps.

My main concerns are:

• Aiden's not using the /oo/, /ee/, /s/ or /sh/ in any babbling or words. Nothing. Nada. Nilch. (I'm not as concerned about the /sh/ and /s/ as I know these come later). We work on them all the time - owls, cars, ghosts, etc. Yes he responds to them by pointing at his ear when I Ling check him, but who knows if he's really hearing the /oo/ and /ee/ like it's supposed to sound. I'm going to talk with his SLP about this more and get her opinion on it. Maybe it has something to do with his oral motor skills?


• Why aren't his maps ever tweaked? Right now we've been going in every three months. There hasn't been one change to any of his maps since the beginning of May.


• Why has he dropped so many of his words? I'm hoping it is because he's been trying out walking more. Many of you confirmed my standstill concerns and said that your children definitely have them, but again, with his most recent audiogram, I can't help but wonder.

To end, I have to share a recent video of my little monkey. All these concerns, and then he does this. Here he is showing off his mouth parts and demonstrating his progressing "h" sound (which he picked up by me saying "hot" every morning as I let him feel my coffee cup).