Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

Alexander had his 2 year check up yesterday and his vocabulary is way below where it should be. We've always been concerned about his vocabulary but the doctors told us to wait until he's 2 before we get really concerned. Well now we are at that point and he still only has about 10 words. He's great at making sounds and he makes about 15 animal sounds. But he won't form words and most of his words are only understandable to us.

The doctor did a hearing test and unfortunately he failed. So we are going on Thursday for a more detailed hearing test. I know he's not deaf because he responds to sounds and he can even hear us when we speak softly to him. But I don't know what to make of the failed test.

They have recommended early speech intervention for him and we are planning on setting that up once we get the results of the hearing test.

My husband and I are in complete shock over this and we are having a hard time digesting everything that is going on. If anyone could share experiences and give me some advice I would really appreciate it. I just don't know what to expect and what to do at this point. Thanks for reading this and please share any thoughts you may have.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

no advice, just

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

hugs is all I can offer.

My sister experienced what you are describing. She ended up having tubes in both ears twice because of it (not because of ear infections). Now, at age 27 she is perfectly normal and extremely smart. But at age 2, she wasn't speaking much and back then, they didn't have the EI things they have now. I think if they had EI back then, they could have treated her even earlier.

Message edited 5/18/2010 10:49:56 PM.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

BUMP

Anyone else????

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

2 of my nephews had some issues with speech around the same age and both ended up having tubes put in their ears...Speech improved significantly afterwards...As it was described to my BIL, my one nephew was hearing as if people were "underwater" and would mimic back the same sounds...It took a little bit of time after the tubes were in for him to adjust to hearing and basically "learning" the new language, but once he did , he did great ..

Good Luck !!!

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

DS has had speech therapy for 6 months, and it has worked wonders for him! He started out a little before two years and only said 3 words, no animal sounds, no attempt to mimic words. He is now speaking in sentences and can say almost any word you throw at him--imperfectly at times, but people can understand him. So many but even if DC needs speech therapy, it might help a lot.

Though it sounds as if there is a problem with DCs ears in your case, maybe some fluid behind the ears? My BIL was like this and once the fluid drained, he was absolutely fine.

Do the hearing test, but I would also contact EI and get the ball rolling. It takes awhile for everything to fall into place, so if it does turn out that DC needs speech therapy, at least that will be in motion a bit.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

No experience with the hearing test, but my son started receiving speech therapy when he was 18 months. EI has done wonders with him.

Do you have any specific questions that I can answer?

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

My son failed his newborn hearing test and just about every other hearing test he took in his first month of life.

Since then, he has had 4 ABRs (Brain stem response hearing tests-and we have 1 more scheduled for th end of the month).

He is only 6 months but I wanted to let you know that in going through all this we discovered that there is such a range of hearing loss and you shouldn't worry that your son is deaf-profound loss, what most of us know of as deafness-is very rare and unlikely.

Through all the testing, we have learned that DS appears to have a very mild impairment. We went from being told he will need hearing aids to finding out that his loss seems so minimal that he probably won't ( ). Just know that there is lots of testing to be done.

Also, it could be due to ear infections or fluid build up and something as simply as tubes could solve it (we were hoping this was the case for DS since it is so common, but it was not).

If there is any loss-even just minimal, it is very good to know since hearing loss is often misdiagnosed as behavioral issues, developmental issues etc.

I'm sure he will be fine

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

The whole EI thing takes some lead time to schedule so I'd just call now to get the process going.

Regardless of whether or not he passes the other hearing test he will still benefit from EI and probably qualify.

I know it is hard news to hear but please know that he is only two, it is great that you are aware of it and now it is time to take action. He's going to be just fine (and so will you and DH).

My son has a few delays (speech being one of them) so if you have questions feel free to FM me.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

Ive had loss of hearing since birth.. tho back then they didn't test for speech delay.

AJ i KNEW would have issues but no one believed me. I pushed for hearing test since the day she was born.. she passed in the hospital but i still didnt believe it.

Her vocab at 20mo (now) is around 10 or so words. I kept pushing and at 15, the earliest, they let me test her again. She failed. Shes had tons of ear infections but I knew it was more. They put tubes in her ears thinking it would solve her speech.

That was Jan. Obviously it hasn't. Her Eval is the 27th. I honestly believe we hold our children to much higher standards than before. I don't think delayed speech by any means is a indicator of 'smart' at later age.

I wish you the best

Think of it this way.. at least we HAVE such tests and therapy available to us these days. He sounds like my daughter, lots of sounds but no words. I swear its just going to pass. She's off to a slow start but her hearing was bad. You can't expect her to gain back what she's lost for 15mo in only 3!

Good Luck!

ETA. I speak fine even tho i have ALWAYS failed hearing tests (still do). I guess I'm not 'stupid' if you will... *shrug* i dont see how passing or failing a hearing test is a indicator of a child's Or adult's mental capacity. Deaf people are just as capable as those who have hearing.

Message edited 5/19/2010 10:36:08 PM.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories and offering your hugs. I can't tell you how much it means to me. We are going this morning for the hearing test and I am calling EI this afternoon once we have a better idea from the hearing test what the problem may or may not be. Once I get the ball rolling with that I am sure I will have a lot more questions for everyone. Please keep my little boy in your thoughts today and I'm sure I will post later today or tonight what happened.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

DS had an earing test done at 1 yo because of his speech. They did want to check his hearing.

He passed.

They used the "wave" machine.

Message edited 5/20/2010 7:55:41 AM.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

We have had the same thing, Noah is speech delayed, but in a slightly different way. He has an amazing vocabulary, but he has lots of trouble putting sounds together (he says things like Togegger, Dirl (girl) Reen (green) loo (blue) Macking (smacking) so on and so forth, and our speech therapist has also suggested he go for a hearing test to make sure that he can actually hear the sounds. Its for the best really, hopefully they won't find anything wrong, but its good that they are going to look into this for you! Good luck!

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

my brother went to speech theraphy as a little boy..prek - K. like your son, he was only saying things my mother could understand.
Once he started therapy he improved greatly! It wasnt anything with his ears as I remember.

DH also had a stutter when he was a kid and needed speech intervention and he is fine today.

between the both of them, i wouldnt be surprised if my DS had speech issues when he's older.

you're doing the best thing by getting help now and not later.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

Ale got speech from 2 years 3 months to 2 years, 9 months. She didn't have any hearing problems. She had high comprehension but scored very low in expressive.

Now DH and I get compliments all the time on how well she speaks. I think she just needed more time but that extra push helped her immensely.

We had an excellent experience with her speech therapy, and she loved it.

Re: Not such good news at doctor-mommies with speech delays especially please read

Did you watch the hearing test being done? I don;t think they are all that accurate. My son failed his and his hearing is perfect. The audiologist said-some kids don't go along with the test because they are freaked out or scared...so I wouldn't worry too much about that especially if you say he can hear when you whisper. Good luck