Dave sez,
There is nothin' like a piping mug of hot chocolate to warm the bones on one of the coldest nights in January. There's a Wind Chill Advisory posted. It's supposed to be around thirty-five below, Wind Chill Factor. It's not an Irish Hot Chocolate. Wish it were. I could go for a cold one. Or a stiff one. But the hot chocolate will do. For now.
I'm pretending to look over Ethan's test results. Last Friday he had a hearing test.
As a radio geek, I thought it was pretty cool. The audiologist welcomed us into a room with a chair in the middle. Like most clinic examination rooms there was a desk and a guest chair right inside the door. The desk had what looked like a small digital sound editor. I recognized it as something similar to the phone editor we use to take contest calls and requests in the control room. There was a supply cabinet above the desk. Next to the digital editor were ear bud covers in a rainbow of different colors. Between the desk and the chair in the middle of the room was a screen mounted on a swivel arm, and another arm with a bunch of different headphones. Behind the chair were speakers. some of the smaller speakers were covered in glass. There was a small monitor set to one side of the speaker array. The same set-up was on the opposite wall, to the left of the door. In one corner, behind the chair, was a small table. Above that was a poster hung on the wall, mapping out an ear canal. The walls were made of what looked like sound tiles. Instead of solid panels, there were tiny holes in the paneling. There was a door leading to a control room with a desktop and mixing board.
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| Jerry Hardin from The X-Files |
It was funny to watch Ethan's face as the audiologist put the headphones into his ears. He had to make sure they were snug to get an accurate reading. There were a couple of times that Ethan screwed up his face like Popeye.
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| Strong to the finnich! |
The audiologist spent a few minutes on tests from the control room. Then he came over to the desk for a few more tests on the digital editor. After that, he took us to another, smaller room, that just had a couple of chaise lounge chairs and a table with a desktop and printer. This was is not that greatthe last part of the exam. He led us back to the first room and printed out the results.
My mom is almost 84. She is hard of hearing because of her age. The only way she can hear is up close, with a loud, booming voice.
Over the course of my career, my hearing has deteriorated. Headphones are never loud enough. My hearing is not that great.
Ethan is having trouble in his classrooms because of his hearing. The next step is an audiologist will evaluate his classrooms to see what technology can help him there.
He has greater needs than his brother. Justin is a pretty healthy kid. We've been able to pin Ethan down as a year older than Justin, but less developed. Ethan is a couple of grades behind Justin. He reads at a third grade level. As much as I would like to encourage him to rise to the occasion and work harder to catch up, this may very well be Ethan's normal.
He's my son. I keep wondering every day if I am doing what's right for him. I ask for the guidance to provide the encouragement he needs. At his age, all I ever wanted to do was watch television and read comic books. I see that he needs the same prodding and motivation. Video games and social media have made us all like the folks in Wall*E.
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| Wowzers! |
We're all trying to see what needs Ethan has, and how best those needs can be met. The most basic need my son has is support and encouragement no matter what.
I love my boy. He may be a Mister-E... but, I want to be there for him. We are on this journey together, all of us. Every step of the way.
