Four Weeks Post Cochlear Implant Activation

 

So, at four weeks post activation there are not any substantial changes.  I have continued to practice the Ling sounds at the beginning of each therapy session.  While my student still needs to see my lips or my signs to choose the correct corresponding picture ("mmm" - eating ice cream, "oo" - train, etc.), I've noticed that her vocalizations in response to mine are starting to more closely resemble what I'm producing.  In particular, my student is making close approximations for "oo" and "ah".  My student is also shaping production of "ow" when repeating/copying "out" during activities using my small, velvet bag.  At this time, I don't feel confident that my student is detecting "sh" or "ss".  We have also  continued to repeat known routines, such as Bingo paint dabbers and "Critter Clinic", focusing on the repetitive words/phrases (open, turn-turn-turn, 1-2-3...Stop, out, bye-bye).  We have continued to work on learning the names of all the classmates and teachers.  These can't really be used for auditory training purposes yet, because my student is still learning them.  I introduced my "knock-knock" board this week and used it to practice names, placing the individual student/staff pictures behind each of the nine doors.  We will again build a routine with this activity (knock-knock-knock, open, who, bye-bye) and reuse it throughout the year with other target vocabulary.  All of my preschool students have also worked on sorting the pictures by boy vs. girl and teacher vs. student.  In the next two weeks, I'd like to focus in on discrimination by syllable number.  My student has a limited receptive/expressive vocabulary, so I will probably use colors (ex. yellow vs. blue, purple vs. green, orange vs. red) as well as names of classmates, particularly one- vs. three-syllables names.