week 22.

This week was a big one for Emmett. :) He started using his new therapeutic listening system and has been really cooperative! We are so grateful to be able to have this system for Emmett to use at home. It is a blessing to be able to take advantage of such technology. We think it will greatly benefit him and help him to utilize all the parts of his brain. It's a pretty slick system; after it came in the mail we took it to Teanna and she set everything up for us. She assigned two playlists for him to listen to each day. In 2-3 weeks she will assign new playlists. Each playlist has different auditory exercises that help the neurodevelopment of his brain. It essentially "wakes up" the areas of his brain that he is unable to use. 

I feel like I am already noticing differences in him. One of the playlists causes him to talk to us nonstop! It's pretty funny. We have also noticed him singing more in front of people (he normally never sings in front of us). So some wheels are starting to turn in that brain of his that weren't turning before...

Emmett is still adjusting wearing the headphones outside of therapy. I think he was pretty confused at first because he associates the headphones with Teanna. He has to wear them for 30 minutes during each session, which is hard for him. Sometimes he gets frustrated and pulls them off, but if we set a visual timer that he can look at, he does better. He can watch and see how much time he has left. 

This week in speech therapy, Zena wanted to try the session without me in the room. It went really well. Emmett has been getting frustrated and shutting down early during speech. When he does this he buries his face in my lap and wants to give up. This time he lasted the entire hour and was focused and happy. I was a bit sad because I like to observe the session, but I can see how that can be distracting for him. 

We went and visited Emmett's school and were able to talk to his teachers as well. We are meeting with them again, along with the special ed team, on September 2nd for a welcome meeting. Emmett seemed pretty comfortable in his classroom, but that may change when the 20 other kids are are in there. We are going to visit the school a few more times before he officially starts so he can make the transition easier.