Ever since I was implanted, I have been pretty active in the CI community. It’s my way of saying thank you to those who helped me while I was researching, having the surgeries and going through the post-activation process. And one of my most favorite haunting places is Hearing Journey. And, I am also a mentor at the Bionic Ear Association.

For those of you who have not been to either of the sites, I want to share with you a small tidbit of the questions and concerns I come across on the Hearing Journey forums as well as referrals made to me via BEA. I will be doing this on a regular basis as the questions and concerns come in. In the meanwhile if you have one please do feel free to drop me a note.

******************************************************

Thanks for sharing me your blog and I found your blog very informative. I am profound deaf and do not have the capability to discriminate speech. I want to thank you for sharing tons of information… especially the links to CI websites and technical information about differences between HiRes 90 and 120.

I have questions about your auditory training. I heard from some audiologists and other CI recipients about “Above and Beyond” and “Making a Connection” auditory training software. I was wondering have you used them for auditory training? If you have, were they helpful? Would you recommend them?

And my response…

Glad to hear from you. And no problem, its what BEA and AB has us for!

To answer your question, no…I did not try the training software. I did attend speech therapy and it was beneficial in that the therapist was able to help me do some reverse lip-reading. That is, since I was so good at lip reading, she was able to associate sounds with the forming of my mouth. You’ll be surprised how that helps. I also used audio books or books on tape/CD.

I have to tell you a funny story about the Books on CD though. I never really paid attention to the fact there are abridged and unabridged versions. I can’t remember off the top of my head what the name of the book was but it didn’t matter. The first night, I popped the CD in and plugged in the direct connect. As I am following along the paragraphs, I am really enjoying it since I could follow it so clearly and understandably. Then all of a sudden…! I am like, I lost my place? Where did I lose it? I am scanning to try to find where it is.

Giving up…I finally start from scratch. Two minutes later…. So I finally took the CD out and blew on it, figuring there was dust or something. It was quite scratchy too. Back in…two minutes….

Giving up, I returned it to the library and I told the librarian of my dilemma. She took one look at the cover, one look at me and asked if I was newly implanted. I said yes. She said “sir, you have the short cut version” and we both laughed. So to make a long story short, Books on tape/CDs are a great way to learn. Just make sure you get the unabridged version! The rest of the learning process was a natural progression since the CIs made it so much easier to lipread.

 

Keep in touch!

 

Sam