Nathan's HEAR Center Appointment

Praise God from whom all blessings flow... We will praise Him in the difficult and in the easy times. Today, He yet again showed his awesome power in Nathan. While we still may need Cochlear Implants, it is no longer a definite journey. Over the past several months Nathan had 2 ABRs where they measure the nerve reaction to sound. In both ears his results were a 90 dB correction, which is one of the criteria for being a cochlear candidate. So, today we went to the HEAR Center and Nathan had hearing test. Now, it is hard to get a response out of a child Nathan's age but the audiologist used different facial expressions, pauses in his activity, etc. to determine his hearing. She felt Nathan was hearing at about an 80 dB correction for most sounds and a 65 dB to 70 dB correction for voice. She also said the ABR ususally runs about 10 dB off, so the new findings are what she would expect. Nathan had his ear molds taken today. We will be going back in early September for another round of screenings. The audiologist thinks he may actually even be able to hear a little better than he is measuring, just because a child at his age is not necessarily going to react to the very first sound they hear and some times only react when it is loud. At our September appointment Nathan will get his hearing aids. Both boys have a speech evaluation set for early October. Both boys have a good amount of speech therapy ahead of them. If Nathan does well with his hearing aids and his speech therapy, then he will not need cochlear implants.