Speech Therapy

People often comment on how well I speak.  I owe it to the dedication of my mom and speech therapy! I started speech therapy when I was 9 months old, and I continued to go after I got my cochlear implant.  It was called auditory verbal training.  It was up at Primary Children's one day a week and at the school for the deaf one day a week.  My mom was given assignments that she did with me as often as she could.  She tried to incorporate things we were doing at therapy as part of play time at home.  She was very dedicated and that made a huge difference.  She did everything the speech therapist told her to do and she made therapy part of every day life.   My mom says I really liked going to therapy which made it easier.  I went to Primary Children's until I was 5 years old.   I only did the speech therapy with the school for the deaf ages 2-4.  

After I got my cochlear implant, the speech therapist at Primary Children's told my mom that she should stop signing with me and focus only on hearing and speaking.  My mom didn't want to stop signing with me because that was how we'd been communicating.  And it seemed mean to take away a main of source of communication. It wasn't until the therapist saw how signing could help with the therapy that she stopped telling my mom to stop signing.  One day the speech therapist had animals lined up and then she would say an animal sound, and she wanted me to go get the animal.  I sat there confused, so my mom signed to me what the therapist wanted me to do.  I understood, and was able to do what she wanted.  The therapist was surprised that I was able to understand and she realized how signing could help during the therapy session.  After that she would always ask my mom to sign the directions.  After my speaking vocabulary was larger, we didn't need to sign anymore.  It was just helpful when I first got my cochlear implant.  

Here is a video of me at my speech therapy sessions.  You can see how important signing was to me.  I signed words like thank you, my turn, and baby.  


Emilee's Speech Therapy from Ben Cahoon on Vimeo.

I consider learning to hear and talk one of my biggest accomplishments.  I want to help deaf kids with cochlear implants, so I am thinking about going into speech therapy.  To prepare now, I am doing a speech therapy internship at an elementary school.  I am really enjoying it!  I think it would be neat to impact a child's life the way my speech therapists impacted mine. I'm very thankful to my mom and the therapists because they made a huge difference in my life.



  

Deaf Dancer

I am deaf and I can dance.   I love jazz and ballet. 

Dancing and being deaf is definitely not easy.  I can hear the music, but I'm sure I hear it differently.  Beats are sometimes hard to hear.  It's sometimes hard to know when to start a move based on just the sound of the music.  I rely a lot on counting and people around me. 

I don't like being in the front or doing a solo because I am afraid of not hearing the music and being off.  I prefer having people in front of me and doing duets instead of solos.  This helps me stay on the right count.  I can do it by myself, but I like the comfort of knowing that I am on the right count.  

Last year I had the opportunity to do a solo part throughout a lyrical dance.  The girl was going on choir tour, and they needed someone to learn her part.  I wasn't in the lyrical dance at the time, so they asked me if I would be willing to learn her part and perform it at the competition.  I said yes, and I am so glad I did!  It was very hard, but I was able to perform it well.  It took a lot of practicing and going over the counts but I was able to do it!  

Here is a video of the lyrical dance. I am the girl kneeling down on the left side.  


Emilee's Lyrical Dance from Ben Cahoon on Vimeo.

I am thankful that I am able to dance.  Dancing is one of my favorite things to do.  I am glad I have a cochlear implant that allows me to hear the music.  It is amazing that the technology today allows me to do something I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.