The following is a summary of the significant events that occurred in Emma's life in January 2006:
SUNDAY 1st JANUARY 2006
Emma took a few steps towards mummy and daddy with hardly any support and even stood alone for a few seconds unsupported before plonking herself down on the floor in a very controlled manner. Her cochlear implant keeps cutting out and causing her distress as she doesn't understand why sometimes she has access to sound and at others she doesn't - seems very cruel!
MONDAY 2nd JANUARY 2006
Emma definitely turned to the sound of the vacuum cleaner today - hooray! Her cochlear implant is still on the blink. Great Ormond Street Hospital have been called and a message has been left for them to send out some new cables for the device.
Emma definitely turned to the sound of the vacuum cleaner today - hooray! Her cochlear implant is still on the blink. Great Ormond Street Hospital have been called and a message has been left for them to send out some new cables for the device.
Her eyes have been deviating to the left quite a lot today but her eye contact has been pretty good considering.
She took an unsupported step towards daddy this afternoon.
TUESDAY 3rd JANUARY 2006
Emma spent the day in Respite care and has started to interact well with the other children.
She has stood unsupported several times and took a step towards mummy without support. She also took 3 unaided steps across her bedroom as she was holding onto her bottle and seemed to use it as support.
GOSH are sending out replacement cables today - thank goodness!
WEDNESDAY 4th JANUARY 2006
Emma has vomited violently twice today. The Dr came out to see her and said that he could not see any signs of infection, but that should she do it again, and should she remain lethargic and sleepy to take her straight to a&e - I bet he did! It's his practice that misdiagnosed Emma's meningitis in the first place!
Emma has vomited violently twice today. The Dr came out to see her and said that he could not see any signs of infection, but that should she do it again, and should she remain lethargic and sleepy to take her straight to a&e - I bet he did! It's his practice that misdiagnosed Emma's meningitis in the first place!
Luckily, she perked up in the afternoon and has played well.
The spare cochlear implant arrived and has been working fine - Emma has been wearing it all day - she definitely turned twice to her name being called.
FRIDAY 5th JANUARY 2006
Emma said what sounded like 'more' at dinner time - but this might have been coincidental as I am so desperate for her to talk! She is definitely understand 'for mummy' however, as even without using gestures to emphasise what is being said she is passing the item being asked for to mummy.
She has started 'dancing' to her musical toy and definitely recognises the sound of her drum being played and will turn to look for it consistently - looks like we might finally be getting somewhere - she seems to be making more sense of sounds.
SUNDAY 8th JANUARY 2006
Emma has started using 'a', 'e', 'i' and 'ga' sounds. She removes the coil of her cochlear implant from her head as usual but she is now passing to daddy to replace - she obviously enjoys having access to sound and doesn't like being without hearing. Thank goodness!
She has made some good eye contact.
She took two unaided steps towards daddy and wanted to keep trying.
MONDAY 9th JANUARY 2006
Emma was taken to 'Chatty Monkeys' playgroup for deaf children today but she is definitely not ready for it and was rather overwhelmed by all the noise and children. She got very upset and was inconsolable. She did not like being handled by the staff there as she is still very touch sensitive after having gone through the ordeal she did in hospital last year.
TUESDAY 10th JANUARY 2006
Emma did well at her weekly physio session. The Speech and Language Therapist saw her and commented on her lack of eye contact - she should have seen her a month ago! These professionals are always so negative! What about praising how far her eye contact has actually come along?! It is so infuriating! Fair enough - she only seems to make eye contact with people who are wearing glasses - but at least she IS making eye contact of some sort - a few months ago she wasn't at all!
She has stood unaided a few times today.
She is now also responding to her telephone toy that rings.
Her eyes have been deviating lots today and definitely seem blurry - she keeps rubbing them as if trying to get them to focus.
WEDNESDAY 11th JANUARY 2006
Emma was seen in Oxford by the Neurologist today and he is very happy with her progress - Wayhey - at least someone is! He is adamant that she will continue to progress (although there are times when I do doubt it). He is hoping that once her hearing and speech develops, her cognitive abilities and eye contact will start to progress too. She is in what he refers to as a 'pre-lingual' stage and that her brain is probably functioning as that of an eleven or twelve month old. We can therefore, not expect her to behave as a 26 month old and need to go at her pace.
SUNDAY 15th JANUARY 2006
Emma's babbling seems more 'structured', she is also communicating her needs a little better - she shakes her head adamantly when she doesn't want something and flaps her arms manically and squeals loudly when she does want something!
She was transferred to her new bedroom this evening and coped really well with the change - settled straight to sleep!
MONDAY 16th JANUARY 2006
Emma was seen by the ophthalmologist this morning who is happy with her progress and is not concerned that she is photophobic - he thinks that this might be something that has been left over from the meningitis and should fade after a while - how long does it take to actually recover from the disease!!! Poor little bubs :-(
He is also happy that her eyes are moving equally.
Emma's implant is playing up yet again - for such an expensive piece of equipment I am shocked at how much it breaks! She has been very upset and screaming lots when it has not been working.
TUESDAY 17th JANUARY 2006
Emma made lovely eye contact with another little girl in her physio group and she also looked directly at the Speech and Language Therapist when she visited her this afternoon - stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
She has also been engaging in play with others quite well although she still prefers to be left alone to do her own thing. She finds processing new things very tiring and will play up instead in an attempt to get out of it.
She has been babbling nicely and has started making 'ba ba', 'ga ga, ' and 'ma ma' sounds.
She had a raspberry milkshake this afternoon, but because she is still so weak from the illness the sugar went straight to her head and she started crawling around the house manically and head-butting the settee for 15 minutes non-stop!
WEDNESDAY 18th JANUARY 2006
The Teacher for the Deaf (Gill) came to see her today and Emma actually spent a lot longer playing with the toys than usual and was interacting nicely. Schooling options have been discussed and visits will be arranged. I would like Emma to go to the local Special Needs school as I strongly feel that she will not get the specific and huge amount of support she will need in a mainstream school. Emma's needs go far beyond being deaf and her global developmental delay would, in my opinion, be catered for much better in a Special school. (Plus I teach in a mainstream school and I do not believe that she will do as well as in in a Special Needs school).
THURSDAY 19th JANUARY 2006
Emma has started to help with dressing and actually tried to put her arm through the sleeve of her pyjama top.
FRIDAY 20th JANUARY 2006
The Teacher for the Visually Impaired (Janet) saw her today and is very impressed with the way in which Emma is manipulating, examining and playing with toys, and the fact that she is no longer mouthing everything she sees but using her hands more. She also commented that her eye contact is coming along nicely and that the only reason she is not making it with people is because they are, at present, not as interesting to her as her toys are. She looks at people if she needs something from them, but other than that, she has no need to as far as she is concerned.
SATURDAY 20th JANUARY 2006
Emma pushes her face forwards when mummy says 'Let's wash your hands and face' without using any prompt or gesture to help her understand what is being said.
MONDAY 23rd JANUARY 2006
Emma was taken to 'Chatty Monkeys' playgroup again this morning and actually lasted the entire 2 hours before getting tired. The staff did not try and push her into joining in with any activity and she did really well just pottering around and playing with the toys. She wasn't really aware of others around her but at least she had a better time than before.
She is very steady on her feet now - even when stood and is taking aided steps a lot better.
TUESDAY 24th JANUARY 2006
Emma was seen by the SALT again today and she made good eye contact, lots of vocalisations and stayed on task for a good amount of time. She also turned immediately to fire engine, ambulance and police car toys.
Her eye contact is really good at mealtimes in particular!
She stood unsupported at her physio session so they have finally seen her do it for themselves - yay!
WEDNESDAY 25th JANUARY 2006
Emma has been pulling her implant off lots today so it is obviously playing up - again! She is also making very high pitch screaming noises that are another indicator that something is going on with the device and causing her neurological problems - bless her. Cochlear implants, on the surface, are fantastic, but they definitely have their flaws!
She has been very wobbly today - mostly when not wearing the implant as again, it also affects her balance.
FRIDAY 27th JANUARY 2006
Emma was seen by Judy from the Teaching And Support Services (TASS). Judy was very impressed with Emma's eye contact, her attention span with toys and her turn-taking. She would like those skills to be reinforced further, as well as 'babble' communication and her comprehension of cause and effect toys. She is also very eager to discourage Emma's casting of objects.
She got very upset when she woke from a nap and didn't have her implant on - she started feeling her ears and really crying!
MONDAY 30th JANUARY 2006
Emma has been taking unaided steps between furniture (2-3 steps).
She saw Gill again and has been quite interested in her toys - a lot more than usual anyway!
She has become more aware of the dogs and likes it when they yap or bark!
She did some lovely turn-taking with mummy and stayed on task for 4 minutes! The SALT has said that Emma's cognitive and social skills need to develop first before her speech, language and hearing skills can.
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