Probably the quickest way to do a big blog update on the hearing, language, hearing aids, speech, etc. thing is to copy in an email I just sent to over half a dozen people. Future members of my blogging workshop this summer should take note of this as a strategy for quickly making blog posts: find emails you've sent that are (1) interesting and (2) don't have to be public, add a little context, and then post them.

Caren (Voc Rehab) will be getting a message from Dr. Krishnan (audiologist) recommending devices (Phonak Ambra Power + associated accessories) very soon. Caren, let me know if I need to set up an appointment with you for anything.

I'll (probably) be taking Dr. Alexander's hearing aid technology class in the fall, so I'll get to play with them then. :) We're scheduled to figure this out in more detail at the beginning of May, but it should be fun. :) (Dr. Alexander, I'm mostly copying you in so you'll know what the final selection ended up being -- thank you for all your help!)

Jeanette (speech therapy) and I are meeting on Friday, where we'll set out a plan for working with all this over the summer.

I'll be taking a qualitative research methods class over the summer (EDCI 616 with Nadine Dolby) around the same time I'll be beginning with the hearing aids, so Nicole (DRC) and I will work out CART and other accessibility things so I can pass class while my cognitive machinery adjusts to the new input.

We're on a semi-short/intense timeschedule here, since classes at Purdue end the last week of April. This means I'll be off-campus from April 25-May 13 (between sessions), then back on campus for Maymester (May 14 - June 8), then off-campus doing research for the rest of summer. So getting in the hearing aids early enough (before May 14? or even... before April 25?) that we can do aural rehab (mostly with Jeanette, I think) through Maymester would be great.

And finally, copying Jennifer (German) in because she's doing research on pronunciation of German-language learners, and if we want to get a pre-assessment in for comparison before I'm able to actually hear what German sounds like (hypothesis: I'll have better German pronunciation once I can actually hear German pronounced), we should probably do it before I get hearing aids -- we'll have at least 2 weeks of lead time (since that's how long it takes earmolds to get made) so I'll let you know when amplification is impending.

Now you all have a glimpse of how crazy my life (with regards to tinkering with language, audiology, hearing aid tech, accessibility, and so forth) is.