Therapy Sessions

Gosh, tsk at me. I typed but didn't publish it. Now...it's published.. 

Last Friday at 11:00 am I went to listening therapy for my appointment. Going listening therapy was one of my routines on Fridays. All I have to is sit and listen a woman’s voice behind a black circle, it called acoustic hoop. 

The acoustic hoop blocked me to see Kristin’s, my listening therapist, lips. All I can do was to listen her voice through the acoustic hoop. It’s why it called listening therapy! I have been attending listening therapy since May or June. I couldn’t remember when but through the summer until now. At the beginning of the sessions were much easy for me. Kristin was surprised how much I have accomplished so quickly. 

For example she does not know where I stand with my previous hearing aids. How much I can understand the words, identify letters, etc. All I know that I cannot able to understand the words with my hearing aids except noise I know. Like I can identify dad’s whistles very easy because I dislike the sounds. Or I can identify the house doorbell and it was too obviously. There were many things I can identify with my hearing aids. Such as I can tell when the music is on during the show or movie, dog barking, people’s voices, big noise such as vacuum, door slam, etc. But I cannot understand the word means when I hear the sounds with my hearing aids. 

With my cochlear implants was another planet for me. There were so MANY different sounds I couldn’t hear it before with my hearing aids. For example I can hear the cars passing while I’m inside of the house. (Not always..) I can hear the door bell without using light flash (special technology for deaf people), somebody takes a shower, oh yeah--fire alarm! That was so LOUD and HIGH PITCH! No wonder I couldn’t hear it with my hearing aids. High frequency was out of question for me if I use hearing aids. Now you see why I was saying cochlear implant was another planet. 

Now I wanted to improve my listening skills is to understand the words. People warned me that it might takes a very LONG TIME to accomplish this goal is to understand the spoken language. Or I will probably NEVER able to get it because I born deaf and had no experiences with hearing aids. But it did scared me because I did not want to be disappoint later, but I had to try. If I didn’t, I would never knew if I can accomplish this goal or not. 

Okay, back to my listening therapy... Remember Kristin was surprised I was progressing so fast. At first she speak a word such as baseball and asked me how many syllables in it, but it was too easy for me. The next she speak ... AGAIN.. Too easy.. But only one problem is with CLOSED set and OPEN set. 

OPEN set = a word can be anything. It’s a random word. No context. 

CLOSED set = I see words on the listing, narrow down to this list instead OPEN set. 

Therapist decided to find where she can challenge me, so she keep trying to find different ways until I hit bottom. A few weeks ago, I hit the bottom. I’ll tell you what did I hit the bottom. 

Kristin started to speak a word. The word has three letters in it.  First letter is consonant, second letter is vowel and last consonant. I have to listen what the word was. I would draw three lines and try to focus what the letter would be.  And it’s OPEN set. 

I heard there were plosive sounds at the beginning and end of the letters. Vowels were harder than consonant. Anyway, I tried to listen and figure it out. I finally got one letter at a time. I would write it down. Now I have accomplished a word after I filled the blank line in, like this.. 

Oh, it’s CAT! Kristin had about fifteen words on her listing. I will give you an example what the list looked like and I couldn’t remember them all. Even I heard or seen them for four weeks. 

Book

Man

Kiss

Cat

Bed

Cup

Five

Rake

Van

Hat

Pig

Jam

Gum

You must think it’s easy words but those were seriously horrible challenge for me. I think this lesson was my hardest since I went to my listening therapy. 

Now I’m going to give you a lesson so you can understand why it was SO HARD for me to figure it out the sounds. 

I’m having hard time to tell the different between /b/ and /p/ or /d/ or /t/ even /g/ and /k/. I’m working on it. I can tell the different if Kristin compare them but when she said word I forgot the sound difference between. Sometimes I got it, but other time I don’t. 

Resonant is hard to tell the different /l/ or /y/. Okay, you get the picture, right? 

Back to the word listing-- 

“man” = I can tell it’s resonant and umm that sounds like nasal but which one /m/ or /n/? Okay, it’s /m/ at the beginning.. Oh yeah, it’s man. But it wasn’t first time Kristin spoke the word. She had to repeat to say the word two or four times until I got it. Sometimes I got it first time. 

“van” = Uh oh.. That sounds same “man”, she just said that! I got confused. Trying to figured it out. /m/? But it almost sound high frequency. It might be /s/, but it was too quiet or different kind of sounds for /s/.. Was it voiced? Or Voiceless? Kristin had to repeat the word.. She sometimes said listen... Listen at the beginning letter, what it was? Umm, it sounds like /s/ but it wasn’t. OH! Voiced! Look at the paper with chart, ah! /v/! Okay, again.. /v/...../v//n/  van? But I didn’t get it without Kristin’s guide. 

Man and van are similar sounds to me, only the different was /m/ and /v/.. 

Again, cup, pig, and cat. Book, bed. Jam, gum. It’s HARD to break it down to individual sounds or identify similar sounds. 

When I hear the new word, it takes me awhile to figure out three letters together to a word. 

First week: Ten new words

Second week: Again ten words (same listing from first week)

Third week: Again (I’m getting a little better...get it a little faster than first week)

Fourth week: Again, I go it faster but had to repeat the word. And add two or three new words. 

Fifth week: Again, and repeat the new words from fourth week. 

That’s how we did.. That’s not all what I did for my listening therapy. After words, Kristin will give me a paper to write it on. She will said a sentence. She would said it’s a statement sentence or question sentence. When she start to say a sentence, I have to listen how many words in the sentence. Most of time it’s very easy for me to know how many words in it. Keep in your mind, she does not speak normal as you would. She would speak slow and clear. So I counted how many then draw lines on the paper. 

Again listened the sentence and try to listen the sounds. Sometimes I got “on” or “a” something like that, again sometimes not. Kristin would use two words from the listing in the sentence. Last Friday she said, “The pig sat on the hat.” Pig and hat were on my word listing. Another sentence, “The man drove the van.” Man and van were on my listing. 

The sentences were mixed with OPEN set (any words) and CLOSED set with listing I have been practicing with. Because this listing was so difficult and she knew I felt stuck with this listing. CLOSED set sometimes help but it didn’t make faster to identify. I often didn’t need the list because I was trying to LISTEN and THINK what it make sounds--narrow it down then look at the paper what I was missing.. I hope it makes sense. 

So those two activities we often use for our activities for an hour. 

Some Fridays would be fun and some Fridays would be very frustrating. That’s how I spent my time in my listening therapy on Fridays. This month is my hardest lesson since I started my listening therapy. I admit it can be discouraging when I struggle to tell the different between letters. I feel like I’m progressing so SLOWLY while Kristin and Annie said I have improved so much since I started listening therapy. Who would I believe--them or me? I know your answer would be.. 

I looked back before getting my cochlear implants. I had to remind myself that i shouldn't put my hope high. I should put a expection that I can learn new things what hearing aids can't. 

 realized I have improved so much. With hearing aids, if I did what Kristin did with me. It’s impossible because I cannot hear /s/, /f/, /v/, /th/, or plosive or resonant. I can only hear the sounds. I mean I cannot able to hear high frequency. It’s a big difference. 

I guess I should believe them.