Jessie has been working with Early Childhood Intervention for more than a year. As much as I wanted her to get speech therapy, no one would agree to it until well after she turned two. Previously it was agreed that she was communicating just fine, although not the way I wanted.
I wanted to make sure that there weren’t any problems with her hearing. If she’s not hearing the sounds right, it’s no wonder she’s not repeating them. I found an ENT and scheduled her appointment.
The hearing test was a lot different than when I had my hearing tested as a little girl. The technician was wonderful with Jessie and my little toddler barely fussed during the exam. The tech used an instrument that measures how sound waves move through the ear canal. The next step was the hearing test. I held Jess on my lap in a booth-like contraption. The booth would fill with sound and Jessie needed to look in the direction of the sound. When she looked in the correct direction, a cartoon character lit up and danced.
I fell in love with the doctor and Jessie was good with her. She let us know that Jessie’s hearing was just about normal. During the doctor’s examination she asked if Jessie snores when she sleeps. Jessie sleeps well, although lightly. Jessie was also hospitalized for apnea about a month after she was born. This provided the doctor insight to the chronic congestion, snoring, and inflamed tonsils and adenoids.
The doctor prescribed Singulair in chewable form and asked to see Jessie again in a month. When we went back for the follow-up, the nasal swelling hadn’t dropped significantly, and the tonsils and adenoids were still inflamed. We scheduled Jessie for a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. The removals should help her rest better and improve her speech quality.
Has your child had his hearing evaluated?