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Baby Jordan's Unscheduled Adventure
How one family’s brush with a hurricane turned into a language-building adventure.
On September 20, 2005 John Tracy Clinic Distance Learning for Parents family, Christy L. and her husband, John, received the news. The strongest measured hurricane to ever have entered the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Rita, was heading directly for Galveston, Texas. Their home, one mile west of Galveston Bay, was directly in the projected path, and they and their baby daughter, 17-month-old Jordan, had to evacuate at once.
Everything in their lives went on hold, including their appointment for Jordan’s much anticipated cochlear implant hook-up and “mapping,” which had been scheduled for that very day. Just as Jordan’s cochlear implant surgery had healed and she was preparing to experience a new world of sound, they had to leave their home for an indefinite time.
They drove north and eventually waited out the hurricane with friends near the Louisiana border. “We were so lucky,” exclaims Christy. “We didn’t know if we’d come through it.” Not only did they come through, but they also turned their temporary displacement into a language-building adventure for Jordan using JTC Distance Learning for Parents materials and the digital hearing aid on her better left ear. “When the storm surged through,” Christy recalls, “we listened to rain sounds. We talked about the trees and how far they were bending in the wind. There were tree frogs everywhere, and Jordan learned to say ‘hop, hop, hop.’ We saw horses, and cows and goats that she had only read about in books, and that made her want to read even more!”
When Jordan was diagnosed at birth with hearing loss in both ears, it hit the family hard. “I had never even known a deaf person before,” says Christy. “I had no idea what to do. I wished it had happened to me instead or that I could give my healthy ears to my daughter. Then I found John Tracy Clinic on the Internet. There was nothing else like it.”
Now, after several months in the Distance Learning for Parents Program, Christy has become a kind of expert. Parents come up to her and ask questions about their own child and she can’t believe she answers in terms of communication strategies and speech development.
After the Lovois returned home, Jordan’s “mapping” was a great success, and soon after she tested right at her age level for speech and hearing. “Our little baby has all the tools she needs,” says Christy. “And, thanks to John Tracy Clinic, we are ready to help her on the next phase of her spoken-language adventure.”