Another day at the movies

Back at the free Wednesday movies with both children. This time, Firstborn was willing to lower his voice when asked and talked much less during the movie. On the way home, he wasn't as talkative overall. I think he understands now that his ears get out of wack. So he was working at talking softer. He did need to be asked to quiet down but he responded quickly. I encouraged him and let him know when he was getting it right.

And so it goes

We are on CD6 of the series and working on the Speech and Language range of frequencies. Firstborn is still resistant to doing these tapes though when he sits down to do them, he seems happy.

The first week through CD 5, I had introduced him to silver and gold wire that he could wrap around his polished rocks to make settings for them. My thought was that he would attach these to the key rings I had purchased for him and make some stocking stuffers. He said the music was actually enjoyable while he was working with the rocks and wire. So we have been trying to find some artistic adventures for him to pursue while listening since then.

He never takes on the listening on his own though. So DH and I had a talk with him after a missed day and a couple of near misses. We told him that he needs to make this his responsibility just like dressing, eating breakfast and brushing his teeth are his responsibilities. He got very upset and started to cry. He's been crying a lot lately. He cries when he is tired, but I had not though him terribly tired. We added a half hour to his awake time this summer to see how it would go, but we are 6 weeks into the summer now and he's not gotten used to it? He is also very tired and low energy at his tae kwon do classes.

So when he turned to me through his tears and said, Is this the CD that's supposed to make me cry a lot, I began to think about that. We'll have to keep an eye on the crying and tired all the time stuff. Is it mostly when he is working in the high frequencies? Is this extra half hour really killing him? Is there something else going on?

An hour later, he came into the kitchen and told me he would do his listening now. He happily put on the headphones and did his thing.

I don't know.

Vocal volume

One of the biggest complaint I have about Firstborn's speech is the volume at which he speaks. I have noticed that recently, he has the ability to bring down his volume significantly if asked to do so. But it is not consistent and it seems like certain things trigger high volume. I always assumed that excitement was a trigger and it may be. But this last couple of weeks I have noticed something else.

Coming out of a particularly high energy and highly populated TaeKwanDo class last week, I could not get him to lower the volume for anything. In the 5 minute drive home, I had developed a headache. And when Firstborn talks loudly, Lastborn will often follow suit. Deep sigh.

After attending the free movie (Shrek) at the cinema this week, he came out with volume on 11 (Spinal Tap anyone?). He had been making comments through the movie at high volume the whole time. I kept asking him to whisper. He kept shouting comments. That' s somewhat understandable in a noisy movie theatre. But after the movie was over? Calm down boy! Take a deep breath and lower your voice.

I asked him to talk more quietly and he complied using one of his best indoor voices ever. But the volume went up within seconds. I asked him to quiet down again and he complied. I encouraged him by giving him feedback that he was doing really well and he responded, but how do you expect me to talk with a quiet voice when I can't even hear what I'm saying.

Light dawns on Marblehead!

OK, a bit of background. I'm told that the problem is not his hearing. Countless standard hearing tests have found nothing in his hearing that is deficient. He hears across all normal frequencies and at a wide range of volumes. In fact, the last ear specialist used the term "supersonic." And therein may lie the problem. His hearing is very sensitive. And as a newborn, he was stuck in the special care nursery for some extra supervision on his first days. In the Special Care Nursery at the time, each infant was tethered with a number of meters all connected to loud alarms. If the meters were to read anything abnormal an alarm would sound. However, infants wiggle. And meter connections fall off. And a reading of zero is a cause for alarms. The monitors were going off constantly. When I would return to my hospital room after visiting with Firstborn, I could still hear the ringing of those alarms in my head for hours. I even remember that sound in my head the day we returned home with Firstborn. If it was enough to bother me that much, how must it have been for an infant with sensitive hearing.

In the middle ear, there are two muscles. One dampens high frequency sounds and the other dampens low. Ever notice if you go to a very loud concert that for a few hours or days, things sound like they are heard through water? Those muscles contract trying to dampen that very loud noise. In infancy and early, we learn to control those muscles separately based on what frequency we want to filter out. Firstborn theoretically doesn't have the ability to do that and thus, he is on The Listening Program to develop that ability. Was his time in Special Care the reason why he shuts down his hearing when he encounters uncomfortable sounds? Maybe this is why things like fireworks only bother him for a short while.

So my latest theory is that while you and I are able to recover from the noise of a movie theater rather quickly, Firstborn may not have gotten to that point yet. He's coming out of there with both muscles clamped down tight and he's not really able to relax them well. Interesting. Another way to monitor progress is to see how quickly he recovers volume control after a movie.