My daughter is 2 and was born 8 weeks early. She was behind for a while. We had a Child Developement Specialist through Sooner Start that came to the house and worked with her for about a year. She eventually was caught up and we took her out of the program.

The problem is that lately I have noticed that her speach seems to be delayed now. I called Sooner Start and they came to the house and re evaluated her and said that she is a little behind in some areas, but not really enough for concern. I asked if they could test her hearing to see if everything was OK there and they did a Tympenogram (sp?)Test and she failed it horribly bad. They said that this test measures the vibrations of her ear drums. The test revealed that there is basically no vibration at all in her right ear, and little vibration in her left. They said that could and would interfere with her speach. BUT...they wanted to wait a month and re test her and see if there was any change.

A week leater, her Pediatrician called me to discuss Riley's test results that Sooner Start had mailed to him. He did not feel it was a good idea to wait a month to re test so he wanted me to bring her in that day so he could re test himself to make sure there were no problems. He thought that maybe the test was not done correctly because the results were so bad.

Well, we went in that afternoon and he re tested and he got the exact results as Sooner Start. He was shocked and said that he had never had that bad of a result in a child before. He has referred us to an Audiologists at the Hough Ear Institute. We go there next week.

I am not sure what all of this means and what we have to look forward to. Have any of you had to deal with an issue similar to this with any of your kids?

I do know that she can hear normal volume, but what she hears is very muffled. Like her head is under water all the time.

Thanks for any advise you may have for me.

Kim

No advice here. But since she does have some hearing in each ear hopefully it's something that hearing aids can help. Has she had a lot of ear infections? I know some of the meds they use for preemies can affect hearing but I'm not sure which ones. My friend has twins that were born early and one had a ton of ear infections and he lost hearing in one ear. He wears a hearing aid in that ear and does great in fact he's in my sons karate class and is in K5.

Hi & thanks for the responce!

As far as I understand, her hearing is OK. She hears even the slightests of sounds, but everything sounds very muffled to her. We will know more on Tuesday after her next appointment. I will keep you posted on what they find out then.

I am pretty sure that what ever the problem my be, it will be able to be fixed. With technology now days, almost everything can be repaired.

Thanks again,
Kim

Good Luck Kim and keep us posted!

Hi there & thanks for the reply.

I took Riley to the Audiologist on Tuesday and they did an "OAE" (Otoacoustic Emission test) on her and she passed that with flying colors. I was still worried about her results from her Tympanogram test and asked if they would retest her just to shut me up. They did and she also passed that one for the 1st time. (as they said she would) So everything is fine with her hearing! WOOHOO! Now we have to decide if she is delayed enough for us to find a speach path for her. I will call Sooner Start on Monday and see what they recomend.

Thanks for your concearn! Have a good day!

Kim

Kim that's great news!

HI,
I am going through a very similar situation with my 5 yearold. We had the same test. He had NO vibration in both ears. Our doc says it is due to fluid around his eardrums that is not getting out. We are going later this week to make appt. to get tubes put in. Did your doc check for fluid around the eardrum? It sounds just like what we are going through. My son hears but you have to talk loudly to him for him to understand. He can't wait to get the tubes so he can hear again. He has had trouble his entire life, but the fluid is not going out this time. Good luck!!

They did test for fluid at the time I took her in for her 3rd test. At that time, there was no fluid. They explained to me that she did have fluid when they did the 2 tympanogram tests. But by the time I got her in to see the Audiologists it had cleared up on its own.

I have never noticed that she had a hard time hearing. BUT...she definately has selective hearing! :p

We are still trying to decide if we are going to pursue the speach path or not. Every Doctor we have talked to has said that she is barely behind and that it would not hurt to wait a few months and see if it gets any better.

What tests have the Doctors given your son? I am no expert by any means, but I do not think I would settle for a simple Tympanogram test. Has you little boy been to an ENT? I know that getting tubes makes a world of difference for helping out with fluid. BUT......from what I understand (I could be wrong....happens all the time :rolleyes: ) fluid does not effect the level of noise that you hear. It just makes what you hear sound very funny.

Lucky for you though, your little one is old enough to tell you a lot of what is wrong with him. That has got to be a big help. With mine I just have to guess and hope I am right.

Does you son have any type of speach problems? Do they think the fluid has been there forever?

Good luck and I hope this will fix the problem!

Kim

I have a son that the doctor insisted was not hard of hearing until i changed doctors we did'nt know for sure and he was three and a half when he got his first set of hearing aids the worst thing about them is the ear infections but as far as him personally well he is almost 12 and his hearing does'nt stop him in the least he is in fourth grade with interpurters in his classes , makes straight a's and has no confidence problems whatsoever if anything he has more than most normal children and his speech turned out fine and his hearing defecit is pretty extensive.So don't worry.If you want to talk you can email me.
MrsEjaffe

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