Malachi the conductor!

Malachi is learning to listen so well. 
Malachi is profoundly deaf but hears with bilateral cochlear implants. He LOVES music. Watch him enjoy and "lead" two ladies at our church play some music (violin and clarinet). It's so ironic that my child with no hearing loves music the most :)

Music and Cochlear Implants

This video is about music and cochlear implants. I found it very interesting. That was one of the first things I thought of when I found out that Malachi was deaf, he wouldn't know music. To my surprise Malachi has actually shown a great love for music since his implantation. He can tell the difference between speech and a song. He absolutely LOVES "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he recognizes it even if I don't do the motions. At church his head pops up when he hears the piano or organ playing and instantly looks at the conductor. Even before he had his CIs I would "wave" his hand to the song's beat/rhythm so now he tries to do it on his own. We even have dance parties! Usually Malachi's favorites are Michael Jackson hits. :)

Talking Malachi

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water recently. I'm 13 weeks pregnant with number 3 and I'm not quite out of my morning sickness. Hopefully I can get into a regular posting schedule soon.

Here is a video of Malachi babbling from January.


He is now saying "mama" "bah bah" "wah wah" "iy iy iy" consistently. He is also understanding words much better. He always turns to his name when called. He understands "up" and "down" and where those "place" are. He is also signing somewhere around 14 signs. He also knows these by saying the words. I can say "shoes" or "fish" and he almost immediately looks for the object and/or signs it.

light
more
baby
shoes
socks
fish
ball
drink/cup
milk
train
more
car
cat
bird

He is also saying his version of look(!). While pointing at something he says, "ouuuh-k". As time goes on he is making the "ouuuh" part shorter, probably just because of laziness lol.

Learning Your Name

(Malachi reading and signing a book) 

"Does he turn when you call his name?"

I remember being asked that when Malachi was 9 months and almost every doctors appointment since. When Brandon was growing up that never even occurred to me. Hearing children hear people calling them their name from the moment they are born.

Malachi didn't start hearing his name until a month or two ago.

Then I started thinking. How in the heck was I going to teach Malachi that his name was Malachi?

Before Malachi was implanted we would hit the floor with our hands twice, and that was his signal to look to see who was trying to get his attention. So once he was hearing our voices I started to call out "Malachi" and also hit the floor twice. Eventually, it started to seem like he was starting to turn to his name.

For about the last week Malachi has been consistently turning to his name being called.

Something that seemed like it was going to be so complicated wasn't at all. It just proved to me again that deaf children learn just the same as hearing children, just in a different way and different time frame.