Toddler Lab

This last semester Matthew was admitted into the toddler lab (a preschool for younger children 18mon-3 yrs) on the BYU-Idaho campus. It's a class where students in the early childhood education major (and some other majors too, I think) can get some practice under the supervision of professors. Matthew absolutely loved it and we were sad he had to miss the last week because of RSV. He grew so much and got much better at interacting with other kids. These are some of the pictures they gave me.

The first day he wasn't so sure, but he warmed up really quick and made some good little friends.

apparently he liked to "lounge" during circle time. they thought he was hilarious

He did a lot of new fun things that he never would have experienced any other way. I think that it helped him be more adventurous to try new things.

I had to gently remind them of his hearing loss a few times and teach them about hearing fatigue. Some days Matthew would just lose it at the end of the day and they didn't know why. Matthew was born with unilateral hearing loss, meaning he's deaf in his left ear. Even though his right ear hears perfectly, or I think BETTER than perfect, he still does not hear like you and I do. Sounds have no direction and loudness/softness doesn't mean much to him. It's like all sounds are right by his ear and his mind has to work extra hard to sort them out. After being in a noisy environment for too long he can get irritable and easily frustrated. Sometimes he just didn't want to join them in the group activity at the end and they thought he was just being a strong willed 2 yr old when really the poor little guy just needed some quiet time. Matthew doesn't do well in loud places at all. I was shocked that they actually didn't even remember that he was half deaf and maybe...mmm...slightly offended, but not really. Anyway, some days it was really hard for me to just sit in the booth and watch how they interacted with matthew. Many many many times I wanted to stick my head in the door and say something like "he's not being naughty, talk in his good ear and he'll obey!" or "give him a break, he needs some quiet time, not you holding him and forcing him to do the hand motions to some silly song he doesn't like!" But I didn't. Matthew got through each time fine and I would always talk to the lead professor afterwards and tell him how I'd like things to be different. The "teachers" were only students, afterall.

here's a picture they got of one of his sad moments.

But even though I end with this picture I don't want it remembered that he had meltdowns, because he did. But so did every one of the other toddlers, hearing loss or not, at some point or another. matthew is a great kid and he had so much fun in toddler lab! Most every morning he would ask me what day it was and if I said wednesday or friday he'd say "I go to toddler lab?!" smart little cookie!
Hopefully we can get him in the preschool this coming fall or winter.