Well, we are at the midway point between Johnny's surgery, and his activation date. It has been an interesting time for us. We feel like we have really done a lot to help people become aware of cochlear implants and how they work. Johnny's scar has drawn a lot of attention, which always leads to questions. We are always glad to explain.
Johnny is picking up signs like a sponge. He has started watching what we sign to him and copying it, including finger spelling. Granted, he doesn't really finger spell, but he tries. He knows so many words, it is hard for us to keep up with him. This week, we have been working with him on the concept of "help". He still doesn't ask for it when he needs it, only when we remind him to.
His favorite new sign is sad. Whenever we see some one who is crying, he signs sad. The other day, we were watching the Superman movie, and we got to the part where Lois Lane dies, just before Superman flies really fast, causing time to go backwards (if you haven't seen the movie, excuse my nerdiness). Johnny saw Superman holding Lois Lane, crying, and he turned to me and signed sad. It was really cute. Turns out, Superman movies are a great way to teach the concept of help. Every time someone was in trouble, I would sign to Johnny that they needed help, and then Superman came and helped them. Pretty soon, Johnny was signing to me that the people needed help. I think he was really beginning to understand.
I hope, as we get the implant activated, that Johnny will learn spoken words quickly, and will continue to learn signs, as quickly as he has been. I think that no matter how well Johnny learns to talk, his first choice will always be signing, and we don't want to discourage that. We want him to be comfortable expressing himself in his language of choice. That's why we want to learn sign language, so he always has that choice.
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