Winter Fun?.....and Ava's Progress

Winter is here in Toronto, much to Ava's chagrin. She is not thrilled with the snow, refuses to walk on the stuff and throws off her mittens in protest with a resounding NO! She also refuses to have anything to do with Santa; having brutally endured not one but two Santa photos. The first of which she would only participate if I was in the picture holding her and the second time she screamed her head off even as I held her. Funny thing is she would really admire Santa from a distance...pointing to him, smiling, saying "ta ta" and even watch older sister Lauren practically tackle the man with excitement.

Ava just completed both hearing testing as well as testing of auditory comprehension and expressive communication. On the hearing testing, she is hearing around the 20 to 25 decibel range with her CI's! This range covers pretty much all of the speech sounds. With respect to the auditory comprehension, she scored in the 97th percentile and equivalent to a one year 9 month old HEARING child. With respect to expressive communication, she scored again in the 97th percentile and equivalent to a one year eleven month old HEARING child. Ava has only heard sound for seven short months and is one year 5 months old. She has SURPASSED what the average hearing child of her age would be expected to score on these tests! This is proof that early intervention, an excellent implant team (thanks to Sick Kids hospital and Dr.Papsin), an experienced audi with superb mapping skills (thank you Susan Drukker) and an amazing auditory-verbal therapist (thank you Mila DeMelo) whom we follow her activities at home faithfully and God Himself = an incredible little girl who is excelling beyond belief.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!