This weekend, Lainey confirmed an amazing milestone she reached.
Over the past two weeks, in two separate instances, Lainey has recognized and communicated to me when her hearing aid battery has died!
My jaw is still on the ground.
The first time it happened was on January 26th (just five days after Lainey turned 15 months).
We were playing in her playroom, and Lainey stopped and touched her right ear. She stood looking at me and kept touching her right ear. I paused and thought, "What is she trying to tell me? Her ears are in but there is something she is trying to tell me. Think, think, think.".
Lainey has always been very intentionally with her communication. I knew she was trying to tell me something so I looked around for a pair of headphones (usually when she sees headphones, she insists I put them in). But there were none in sight. It had to be something else.
My only other thought was that maybe the battery in her ear died (her ears run on batteries and get changed roughly every 7-10 days). I knew how big of a moment this could be. I held my breath, trying not to get too excited. Low and behold, her right ear was dead!!
I think my jaw hit the floor! Did this really just happen? Did Lainey just tell me that her ear died?
It was hard to be certain because this was the first occurrence and Lainey can't officially "talk" but we truly believed she was telling us!
We told Lainey's B-3 teacher, as well as her audiologist. Both were incredibly impressed and seemed very confident that Lainey knew exactly what was going on.
Lainey's audiologist took notes and said that she has never heard of a child recognizing this at such an early age! She asked if she could share Lainey's success story with her team! This is probably my proudest Mom moment yet!
I was anxious for the next opportunity to see what Lainey would do. And what do you know? SHE DID IT AGAIN!
On Saturday, (February 6th), while we were playing in her play room, I could see that her left ear was dying (it blinks red when it is dying). I was cautiously excited to see how she was going to respond.
About 20 minutes later, Lainey very subtly pointed to her left ear, and then continued on playing. I immediately checked her ear and sure enough, it was dead! Her communication this time was very subtle but I knew exactly what she meant!
I am absolutely over the moon!
Teaching Lainey self-advocacy will be a continuous goal of mine. It will be so important for her to be able to recognize and communicate with me (and others) when something isn't right with her ears. Having Lainey tell me about a dead battery was something I wanted to work to but I thought we were months (or years!) away! She literally took the initiative and did it all on her own! Absolutely amazing in my mind!
Lainey girl, you are an absolute shining star! You continue to show there are no limits! I love you so much!!
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