This is a follow up on my previous posts about a student of mine who came to my school nonverbal.
So the young student I posted about went to the audiologist. They told the parents the test was not conclusive. There are many variables one being the ear infections. Yes they could do an ABR but not until the fluid is gone. They were also told that my student was not responsive to testing and maybe when she was older they could get an accurate read. Please note she is not yet three.
A week ago the ENT put tubes in her ears. He said in thirty years of doing that surgery he has never seen so much fluid come out. At school during circle time she suddenly will cover her ears. It is as if she is hearing for the first time. She heavily relies on ASL to communicate and we predict she will need SLP services for at least a year to catch up. Her speech has improved since her surgery.
She has a follow up appointment with the ENT and audiologist next week.
She came to my school in October. We hope next week we will have the answers we need to help her. It took eight months.
Wow. What a long journey! So glad that things are finally on the move for them...
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like something that happened to my son when he was about 11-months-old. He wasn't verbal and he didn't seem to be responding to sound. We took him to the ENT and discovered he had 90% hearing loss. Tubes were inserted (and we go a similar comment from the doctor about the amount of fluid in the ears) and voila, he could hear and started verbalizing.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who discovered this problem when her daughter was three. After a year or so of therapy the girl's speech was normal.
My son failed his newborn hearing test. We went to an audiologist and I was told he was profoundly deaf and hearing aids would not help him. However, his sister IS profoundly Deaf and I know what Deaf babies sound like- he didn't sound like a Deaf baby. So I pestered and pestered- he had fluid in his ears, his tympanagrams were never, ever normal. When they finally agreed to tubes I think it was just to shut me up- he was 18 months. On the WAY HOME from the surgery I could hear him in the back seat of the car, experimenting with his voice. He is HOH, but he does have some speech as well and to this day loves a song with a good beat ^.^
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