For the past few months now we've had some concerns about Paige's hearing and speech. When we took her in for her 2 year check-up in January she only had a couple words and none of them were very clear so her doctor referred us to the local Area Education Authority for testing. Based on her results she qualified for speech therapy, which we have been doing for a couple months now. They also wanted to have her hearing tested. She failed her first hearing test because there was no movement in either eardrum. The audiologist explained that this is usually due to some fluid in the ear and we should bring her back in a month to re-test. So we did. One month later, she failed the hearing test again. Again, no movement in either eardrum. So we took her to see her pediatrician. He explained that in order for us to get a referral to an Ear Nose & Throat specialist, Paige would have to fail four consecutive hearing tests, each one month apart. So we took her two more times and the results were the same; no movement in either eardrum, so we finally got the referral to the ENT.
Her appointment with the specialist was on Wednesday. They tested her hearing, checked her ears and reviewed her development. After going over everything they recommended putting tubes in her ears to clear the fluid. We had been hoping this would be the recommendation, especially since she has a speech delay. We feel very strongly that her speech will improve once the fluid is able to drain properly and she is able to hear better. The way they've explained it to us is that the fluid in her ears muffles the sounds, it's kind of like hearing while under water, everything is mumbled. Which would explain why all her words sound alike and she has very few clear words that she uses.
Her appointment to have the tubes put in is this coming Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed that the procedure goes well and will work. We'll keep you posted!
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4 comments:
I'm so glad you were finally able to get the tubes put it. Way to work the system :o) Please keep us posted. I don't know if you remember I'm a speech language pathologist and I'd be happy to chat with you or send you stuff you guys can do at home, etc. I'm sure they're taking good care of you, though. Best of luck. I'm certain the tubes will make a world of difference :o) Good luck!!
I am glad that they are going to put tubes in!!! We just got tubes put in Ewan's ears on June 5th due to fluid not draining, and 9 ear infections in 9 months. It has been a blessing! Ewan is finally trying to talk. We will keep our fingers crossed. GOOD LUCK!
That's so crazy she had to fail 4 times. What do they think she's faking it? Nice to finally have an option though. Hope it all works out, maybe that's why she acts like she's not listening sometimes, lol because she can't.
but why did you say referral to the "ENT" and not the full-blown ottorhinolaringologist???? Doesn't everybody know that word? Okay, maybe my spelling is off by one or two letters, but it's such a cool word. . . :-)
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