My Nonprofit Reviews

I am Max's Grammy. Max was born on June 26, 2012 with bilateral hearing loss. He could hear about 40% of speech sounds.
Max was such a good baby, he wasn't fussy and slept well. I could put him in the playpen in the middle of my living room and have his 3 siblings playing around him and he would sleep so good. I put up pictures of him on Facebook sleeping so well in the middle of his noisy siblings. His sister would let out some loud screams, still does, and he didn't flinch. I bragged about how good my newest grand baby was.
As Max got older he was still such a good baby. He would always have the biggest smile and was so quiet. Pretty soon though we noticed he wasn't talking, at all. No sounds... My daughter kept taking him to the doctor and finally in February of 2014 they took her seriously and gave him some hearing tests. He would fail the tests and then pass, then fail again. He had some fluid on his ears so in April 2014 the doctor decided to put tubes in to see if that was the problem. While he was under for the tubes the gave him a hearing test called ABR? Something that was more accurate than what he had before. It's hard to get a good test when you are working with a toddler. This is when we found out he had bilateral hearing loss.
My sweet little man with the huge smile didn't have a voice for a reason. He got his hearing aids fitted and boy did he throw a fit when ever things got to loud, his sister, or certain sounds and voices upset him too.
We really didn't know what to do, we put the aids in and let him go. all he wanted to do was pull them out and he still wasn't speaking, but he was screaming. We didn't know any other kids with hearing loss and were trying to figure out where to go next. Then I saw something about a fun run for a school for toddlers.. Spokane HOPE school was having their first Hear me Run. I signed us all up and told Carla we could find people down there who were going through this and could help guide us in what to do. That was the best decision we made for Max. The more I saw, I knew he had to get into this program.
Hearing Oral Program of Excellence. Awesome! We knew this is what he needed. Having checked out the other options, there was signing. Signing is a good thing, but I figured if he could learn how to communicate first he would be better in the real world. Signing alone is a almost as much of a handicap as having nothing. I don't have any friends or co workers who can sign. I am guessing it would still cut him off from 99.5 percent of the population and that may be generous. He has to be able to communicate so when he is on a bus somewhere and needs directions, he has other options besides pen and paper or signing.
The first 5 years they are little sponges and that is the best time to learn and absorb and excel in anything. Max went to the toddler class at Spokane HOPE School and started using words. Then he started the preschool class. He had been using a lot of gibberish since he got his hearing aids along with his words. After his first month at the preschool class I went and picked him up for his mommy at a dance class. As I walked up to him he looked up at me from his video game and said "Hi Gammy!" with that big smile. First time ever he said Grammy and he used it in a little sentence. It was so sweet and still makes me tear up when I think about it. Now after his first school year in the preschool class say "I Love you Grammy!" Of course I want him to keep calling me Gammy, it was so cute but I am so excited about his progress. His voice is clear and sweet. He doesn't sound like he has hearing loss like the kids did when I was growing up. I think this school is going to enable him to start kindergarten when it is time and fit right in with all of the kids. My biggest fear is he will be picked on at school, I don't worry so much about that anymore due to his awesome progress.
I call him Maximus Prime, because of the transformation he has made and will continue to make over the next few years. My kids played with transformers when they were little and this name is my take or Optimus Prime. He answers to it with a smile! I am so proud of him and am so thankful for Spokane HOPE School for giving him these awesome tools that he will use for the rest of his life. He will be a grandpa one day and be able to read to his grandchildren and they will understand him.
He will be fully independent, fit in with all of the kids at school, not be picked on, speak in a clear voice, understand others and with those tools he will be able to do what ever he wants to do in life. I don't worry about that anymore. :)
The pictures are of Max when he started Spokane HOPE School and Max now.