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Universit Dailv Kansan / Thursday. December 5. 1991
Toddler learns to cope with hearing loss
Margret Mataele toddles into the KU Schiefelbusch Speech-Language-Hearing clinic with a cherry blow-pop sucker bulging in her left cheek.
By Kerrie Gottschalk
Kansan staff writer
She sees a pile of play things on the floor and securities away from her mother to explore the room.
Margret, who will be 3-years-old in July,
picks up some farm animal figures, flutters
her fingers in front of some of them and tosses
others away.
Her mother, Ann Radke, watches as she waits for the graduate clinician that teaches Margret language skills
Puately. Margret shows a stranger a toy, puts her right hand under her chin and flips her flipper over.
'She's telling you that is a pig,' Ridke says. 'Ridke smiles, but behind that smile a smile of fear.'
It is likely Margret will be completely deaf by the time she is 4 years-old.
About a year ago, Margret was unresponsive to her mother's voice and could not walk or talk.
Condition diagnosed
When Radkite took her daughter last November to a pediatrician for a routine checkup, results showed Margret's development was severely delayed for a 16-month-old child.
"She couldn't walk or draw a straight line or help dress herself." Radtke said.
"For a year, I thought she was just an increased learner. She learned she was deaf, it all made sense to me."
Further tests revealed the cause.
Further tests revealed the cause:
When Radkite was pregnant with Margret,
she had contracted a latent virus known as cytomegalovirus, or CMV.
No treatment is yet available for the virus.
The reaction of newborns who contract the virus varies, but in severe cases infants can be infected.
In Margret's case, the virus attacked her ears.
Finding help
The discovery of her daughter's hearing impairment left Radike, 27, confused.
"A lot of people were very anxious to tell me which way to go," she said.
Radke and her Samaon husband were living in Hawaii when Margret's condition was disoriented.
Last winter, Radtke and her husband separated. She moved back to Lawrence to be closer to her family and find a way to help herself and Marcree围 with Marcree's hearing loss.
She eventually found that help at the KU's Dole Center toddler program.
Radtke first sought assistance from local language tutors who were hired to help Marina.
But when Radke realized that Margret was still pointing and grunting and making little
progress in language acquisition, she decided to take another approach.
One sought the advice of a pediatrician at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. The pediatrician referred her to the Dole Center toddler program.
Within a few months, Margret achieved the normal developmental skills for her age group in the program.
Margret received hearing aids that have helped her gain considerable balance. She still wobbles when her mother removes the hearing aids in order to replace old batteries.
"She is profoundly deaf in one ear, which seriously affects her balance," said Paula Swartzman, a graduate clinician at Schiefelbusch who is working with Margret.
Margret began going to the Schieflebusch Speech-Language-Hearing Center when she finished the toddler program, Radtke said.
"The first day I saw her, I noticed that she watched everybody's faces at the first meeting." Swartman said, referring to a meeting that included Swartman, clinic director Jane Wegner, Radike and Margret's babysitters, Karen and David Rosenthal.
"By the end of that meeting, she sat in my lap, and I drew pictures for her." Zwartman said.
Learning a new language
The two started working together in July. They meet at least twice a week for about an hour each session.
During their meetings, Swartzman teaches Margret sign language, oral pronunciation and some lip reading. The technique is called *Nasalization*, which became widely used in the early 1970s.
*Total communication involves signing, miming, voice and any other method that is used in communicating.* Swartzman said.
She said Marget needed a language-based program with sign and speech emphasis. She said she wanted to be a teacher.
When they bake cookies, Swartman teaches Margret signs for words such as "sugar," "hot" and "cookie."
When they visited a local veterinarian's office, nine cubs, Murgaret learned sev-
*Margret is very, very interested in what is going on around her. When she doesn't understand something, she'll look at me inquisitively.* Swartzmian said.
Her curiosity was tempered, however, last week when she and Swartzman made a trip to
"It was going OK until she sat on his lap," Swartmant said.
The unfamiliar surroundings made her cry
and did learn the sign for Sina, though,
Swartzert.
"When we saw another Santa later, she stood by her and signed to him that she wanted a bishop."
Paula Swartzman. Topeka graduate student. works with Maroret on sign language to help develop total communication skills.
Swartzant that that Margret's vocabulary had drastically improved. At the beginning of the summer, she knew about 25 signs; today, she knows from 150 to 200 signs.
Many times, the two will sit in front of a mirror and practice sounds.
Last week, Margret spontaneously voiced the word "kitty" when she saw a cat in a store.
"It's the first time she has said it clearly," she said.
Margret can be grumpy once in a while, though, she said.
"She puts her hands over her eyes or turns her head away if she doesn't like what's going on."
But Swartzman said that it did not take long to warm up to Marriott.
"She is a special little girl," Swartzman said.
Moving forward
In addition to what she learns from Swartzman, Margret also picks up language at her babySitter's house.
"Sometimes she comes home and signs something I don't know." Raddie said. "Then I will come to your house."
Karen and David Rosenthal are deaf and practice total communication when babiesi-
Radke said she often sought advice and support from the Rosenthals.
Margret has made enough progress that she will be enrolled in prechool for hearing children.
Margret's $800 hearing aids give her the sense of balance she lacks.
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