“Child, where is your BAHA?”
My 3 year old daughter is pretty good at wearing her hearing aid and softband on all day. She usually only takes it off for bath or bed time, and hands it to me. I set it safely on the kitchen island.
The problem is, sometimes she decides to change her clothing randomly in the middle of the day. She usually steps out of her shirts, stretching out the neck. But if she can’t get it off that way, than she removes her hearing aid headband to change her shirt. She does not know how to put her headband back on, so she leaves it wherever.
Fortunately, when I ask, “where is your BAHA?” She always knows exactly where she left it, and can take me to it. Usually it is on her bed, camouflaged with her colorful blankets, or in a pile of clothing on her bedroom floor. Just waiting to get scooped up and thrown in the wash machine.
Last week, we had our Individual Service Family Plan (ISFP) meeting, with our new Speech Language Patholigist (SLP) and our Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) teacher. This meeting included setting goals for the next year. I am very bad at coming up with goals, fortunately the professionals have great ideas of things we should be working on. But at this ISFP meeting, for the first time ever, I had idea of something we need to work on.
“Can you help me train this child to always put her hearing aid and headband in a safe location?” I asked, “Like, on the counter-top, or table, or anywhere other than on the floor?”
Fortunately, the professionals had a genius idea. Make a box, and always put the BAHA in the box. Kind of like how my husband and I always put our car keys in the same place. Same with our phones. All our important items have one specific location where they belong, always. Not just “put it somewhere safe, where you can find it when you need it…if you remember where you left it.” So instead of teaching my 3 year old how to determine what is a “safe location” to leave her hearing aid, we created one place where it always goes. The “BAHA Box.”
We actually ended up making two “BAHA Boxes.” One is on the kitchen island, where we normally keep her BAHA and softband when she’s not wearing it, like overnight. The other BAHA Box is on her night-stand, for when she randomly decides to change her clothing in the middle of the day.
Today she went up-stairs to play and then came down-stairs wearing a new outfit. “Where is your BAHA?” I asked.
She responded, with a very teenager-ish tone, “In my BAHA box.” Duh. Where else would it be? I’m pretty sure she rolled her eyes too. So it looks like training is successful and now her BAHA is always safely in her BAHA box.
Along with the BAHA Box, I highly recommend tethering the BAHA to the softband. That way, if the child takes it off, everything stays together. So hopefully that little hearing aid does not get lost. Here’s some ideas for DIY Safety Lines.
What strategies do you use to keep your BAHA safe?
