She is in speech therapy right now, though you wouldn't really know that she has issues with speech. The ENT wanted a speech evaluation in conjuction with the hearing aid, and the speech therapist thought it would be a good idea to work on a few sounds she has difficulty pronouncing. She is also working on helping her adjust to learning how to hear with the new aid. Our speech therapist is great and she read my mind when she showed me this hearing loss simulator. I had wondered if we were doing the right thing, and wondered if a mild hearing loss was really that big of a deal. She let me listen to this hearing loss simulator and it definitely answered that questions--- YES! Even a mild loss can be a big deal!!  Click the picture below and it will take you to the website. You click on one of the scenario icons (coffe shop, outside, child's voice, man's voice, woman's voice) then click the level of hearing loss. Be sure to first listen to it with a "normal" hearing range. 

Pretty amazing, right? Its interesting in the outside scenario how so much of the background is murmurred even with mild hearing loss. And did you notice how much harder you had to work to listen to what was being said, at even the mild loss level? This was really eye-opening and helped me see how difficult it must have been for Gia (and Sean!) to live without their hearing aids. Just thought this was a really neat tool & people who loved us would be interested in seeing it!