Pre-school and Beyond

Ariana's 1st year of school was at our church. We knew she needed something good to immerse her in as much language as possible and in a environment in which she could flourish. My husband was transferred and promoted. We moved to Plano, TX and lived there for 2 1/2 years. It was the BEST thing we could have ever done for Ariana. Plano has one of the finest programs for the deaf and hearing impaired in the country. She went to an oral deaf pre-school everyday, 6 hours a day for 2 years. She progressed like never before. When they tested her, she tested higher than any other hearing impaired child with her degree of hearing loss.

She went to school with lots of children with cochlear implants. It was an eye opening experience for me. They just seemed to flourish and progress much faster than the kids that did not have CI's. I was no longer close minded about them.

It had been so many years since meningitis and with meningitis, ossification forms around the cochleas. We knew that it would be a long shot that she would be a candidate for a CI, so we didn't try to pursue it until the day Ariana actually started asking us for one. So, we made an appointment with Dr. Peters in Dallas. He looked at all her records and said that he thought she would be better off just wearing her lone little hearing aid. Did I mention that she only had 35 % hearing aided? He didn't even bother to do a CT scan, he assumed due to the time frame that she would just have nothing but pure bone. So, we went on with our life and put the CI thought out of our mind.

We loved the schools in TX, but it just wasn't home! Our yard was a postage stamp and our kids are the outdoorsy type. My husband had the opportunity to come back to Birmingham, so we jumped on it. I knew that the school situation in AL would be hard and I would have to fight to get her what she needed, but I was up for the challenge and armed with knowledge on how to stay on top of things.

We moved back in the middle of her kindergarten year. She had already mainstreamed into kindergarten. It was a tough adjustment at first regarding what the school would offer her. They said that she tested too high for their scale and were not even going to offer her any services. I was outraged. I was not going to wait and then let her fall beneath the cracks. Just because she was doing good then, didn't mean that she would continue to, once material got harder and harder. Early intervention is the key. They ended up giving her what she needed. To not, would be to break the law. She was profoundly deaf for crying out loud!