Can You Hear Me?!!

This week when an audiologist came from the states to do some hearing checks on our kids, he asked me this question. "Have you noticed any hearing problems?" I stated not really unless you count "selective hearing" which several of them have at different times!! You have kids, you know exactly what I'm talking about! Their hearing has now been checked and they all passed with flying colors! Now they have no excuse! It's not hard to spot selective hearing! Just try telling them it's time to pick up their toys or make their bed, and when they "can't" hear you, say well, would you like to go swimming today or to the store later, for example?! Suddenly!! Whammo, it's a miracle!! They can hear just fine!! It's also interesting that you can ask them to do something in a normal tone of voice, and they "can't" hear you. But whisper something about candy or try opening or rattling a chip bag or something and they can hear that from a great distance!! They'll come running from another room! Kids!

Hannah had to have a sucker to keep her quiet long enough to check her ears. Jenna, she just plain didn't want to hold still and sit there! Ellie, our nurse, and I had to hold her still long enough to do the check, which wasn't very long. Everyone else was a breeze! Elizabeth thought it was great fun and Serena, apparently intrigued by the whole process and equipment, kept forgetting to tell them when she heard a sound! We found out that Shawna has exceptionally good hearing. Elise was the guinea pig all the nurses got to look at. As a cleft palate baby, she has had many ear infections, tubes put in, and a surgery to close a hole in her past. We haven't really had her hearing checked since moving to China 6 years ago, so I was curious how it had affected her hearing, although we'd noticed no problems. While her hearing was normal, she did have some scarring on her ear drum, which is normal in such cases, but it was minimal so it doesn't affect her hearing. Wonderful news for us to hear! It was all fun and the nice little reward of a sucker at the end just made it even better!