Ryan's cochlear implant update!

Ryan's been impressing us so much this year with all he's learned in Kindergarten, but this Mother's Day weekend he gave us the best surprise gift yet! Check out the video to see how far he's come with his Advanced Bionics cochlear implants!

As a little backstory for our new blog readers, Ryan was born at 25 weeks and spent 7 months in the NICU before we could bring him home on oxygen and a feeding tube. Just before discharge he failed his newborn hearing screening and we found out a few months later after an ABR test that he was profoundly deaf in both ears. He was implanted with his cochlear implants in November 2013 (right ear) and March 2014 (left ear) so he was right around 2 years old and he just turned 6 this March.

We do work with him on a combination of ASL and oral speech just to give him access to any type of communication he'll use. He does have some other developmental delays as well as a visual impairment, so the more access to language and communication, the better! Here's a sampling of what he's accomplishing now at the end of his first year of kindergarten. Be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel and follow us on instagram.com/spraypal and facebook.com/spraypalusa for more frequent updates.