"I Know You Can Hear Me!"

I've found myself telling Elijah "I know you can hear me!" several times in the last week when he's seemingly ignoring me. It's a relief in so many ways - to know that he is indeed getting all the sounds he should be, that he doesn't have yet another thing stacked against him. He doesn't always respond, but it doesn't mean he isn't hearing me.

Hearing, listening, and understanding are all different things, of course.

The ABR told us that the information is getting to Elijah's brain stem. What he does with that information once it gets there is any one's guess. And of course, like any two-year-old, Elijah sometimes seems to have selective listening. Can he understand us? Yes-most definitely. What and how much, though, we're not really sure.

In hindsight, I'm glad we did the ABR. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be (thanks for the prayers!), but sedation is still not something we take lightly (especially when the anesthesiologist mentioned that kids with 'developmental differences' sometimes have a harder time waking up). Dealing with a 'drunk' two-year-old isn't exactly my idea of fun. Elijah was wobbly and grumpy for that entire day. But, he can hear and that knowledge is priceless.

P.S. Don't the pictures of him during his ABR look like he's just listening to an ipod? Pretty amazing what they can learn with technology these days.

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