My Son Is Going to Have a Audio Hearing Test, Anyone Else Gone Through This?

Hello I'm a mother of 2 and my oldest is 13 and my youngest is 11. My 13 year old had a problem when he was little he wasn't able to pronounce words clearly, or you just couldn't understand him I use to have him repeat himself. I took him to a speach therpist and they told me he had a phonic disorder. They said he had problems pronuncing the words because his mind is going faster than his mouth. After 3 years of speach thearpy he learned to slow down when he talked. He still has the problem today but only when he is excited. Hope this helped you.

S.

My son went thru this many years ago. He did end up having a hearing loss due to constant ear infections. The test is no big deal. They will put headphones on him and send sounds or tones thru them. All my son was required to do was point to the ear the sound was coming from. My son did end up having tubes put in his ears, his tonsils & adnoids removed. He will always have a slight hearing loss but other than that he never got another ear infection & rarely ever got sick.

Hi Bridget,
I am currently going through something close to this with my 5 yr old. At her kinder check up, they discovered that she can not hear in her left ear. Other than a few letters being mispronounced I had not noticed it. I think the reason was, I have been teaching her American Sign Language since she was 1 yr old. I found in a magazine a video series called Signing Time, by Two Little Hands. Thanks to Signing Time, ASL has become a family learning experience. I encourage you to begin signing with your son. You can go to www.signingtime.com
You can also read about the benifits of Signing at http://www.signingtime.com/article_info.php?articles_id=11
I would also encourage you to log on to the Signing Time forums, they have a forum to discuss about speah delays, and other special needs. Here you can talk with other parents that have been there done that!

S.

Boy do I hear your concern. Last December I had a gut feeling that something was wrong with my son's hearing. He heard us, responded exactly what your son is doing. I took him to Kaiser and demanded that they tell me what's wrong. I had the hearing test done with the right ear completely block virtually no souond going through. I was then refered to the ENT (Ears, Nose & Throat) when they found he had a ear infection. Yes, that simple! But before the 4 week wait to get in I was in speech therapy for 4 weeks which helped a little. My kid never pulled on his ear, had a fever or anything. Some kids react different then others and boys are more into being out side and riding there bikes. In other words, they never slow down. He was on antibiotics for 10 days and guess what? He is talking up a storm and I cannot get him to shut up!! LOL
A word of advise - if you think something is wrong go with your gut feeling because you are probably right. Demand they look further into it because the longer you wait the possiblility of perpament hearing loss is greater. Also, ask about tubes (they are not a bad thing)... If you need to talk just write back. I'll help you through this.

my son had two hearing tests done at sacramento ENT, one when he was 18mos old and the second when he turned 2 because he also has a speech delay. The test is actually very simple they bring you into a sound proof room that has a windoe it kind of reminded me of a vault, then they show your son a toy or something to distract him then the nurse outside speaks or makes sounds into a microphone if your sonturns his head to the side where the noise is coming from (left, right speakers) they will reward him with turning on a box that has a big or dog that moves. It is very easy and age appropiate fortunetly my sons hearing is fine I hope the same for your son.

My son is only 15 months old, so I have not experienced exactly what you are going through. It must be frustrating. But I can tell you possibly what to expect for your sons hearing test. My son was born with atresia of his right ear. Which basically means, he doesn't have one. So they had to do a hearing test on him to see if there was a working ear drum inside his head, because there was no hole for them to look through and see his eardrum. Luckily for us, he is fine.
The test that they gave my son was a little complicated because he was so small, but yours may go easier. They may conduct a bone hearing test. Meaning they they stick little pads to the bone behind the ears, and two on his forehead. They then pass sound through that and see if the brain signals a respons. This may or may not be done seeing as how they already know that his eardrum is not working. Other than that I unfortunatly can't give you any help, other than to suggest that you call the doctor and ask questions before you go. Hope this helps, and I hope all goes well.

My name is H. and my four year old gril had almost the same thing. Hers was that both ears were "bad". We did the hearing test. She and I went into a small room with little things on the walls. We sat in the room and the test was like this....
The nurse goes into a joining room and she could see use through a window. She pushed buttons and the things on the wall wouls make sounds. I could not move or react. They whated to see how she would react. One thing would make a sound on the left then stop. Next one on the right or up high different sounds loud and soft. It was a game for her. After this we saw a ear Dr. and we found out that she needed to have tubes put in her ears.It was a little scary for me. Now its been about eight months now her hearing is much better and now just about everyone can understand what she is saying.
Its hard right now. Try to remember one step at a time. Its going to be o.k.. If he needs a tube put in its not that bad. Just be brave in front of him and he will be brave with you.
If you want to talk I'm here. You are not alone.
Good luck
H.

My son has had several hearing tests at the ENT. THey put them and you in a boxed room that is sound proof and put ear phones on him and say various sounds and ask them to raise their hands or what ever if they hear, plus they can do a pressure test that is more accurate with their machines to test the amount of pressure through the ear drum. With my son usually the fluid clears itself up within a couple months so they haven't actually done anything like tubes or anything, but he is also in speech (he's five and started at age 3 as well), and starts kindergarten next year.

Hi Bridget,
We never went to an ENT. This is because she had never been sick or had an ear infection in her life. She has since had them(not fun!) She was almost 21 months when she had her first audiologist visit. He did a pressure test, which other parents have described for you. They Determined her eardrums were working fine. They did a bone conducting test, which has also been described. They did an audiogram, which is with headphones and is connected to a computer by wires. They test the sound in ea. ear. My daughter didn't like the headphones at all. When she failed the audiogram, they had us go into the sound proof room. They had speakers, on both sides of the room, with animals sitting on top of the speakers. They had her sit on my lap. Then I had to sit there with my "poker face" on. They tested each ear seperately. She was supposed to look to where the sound was coming from. My daughter didn't cooperate in the sound booth, until she was almost 4yrs. She also failed this test. It was determined that she has bilateral hearing loss. We've also done the play tests, they work much better. We've also done ones with the game connect four. We've done the sedation tests 2 times. They're called Adio Brain Response tests(ABR). This is how you get exact numbers on what is being heard. My girls was 70 to 80 Decibals on the first test(not great). The second one was at the age of 2 1/2. It was 100 decibals. This is wear her hearing is to this day. At the very first audiological visit. I was encouraged to contact my local school district for services. She has been in school ever since. It has been absolutely wonderful. We then started sign language which saved our hearing because she screamed, out of frustration. It is very common for kids w/hearing loss to scream. I learned this later. This may sound strange, but I wouldn't change a thing because I have the most absolutely amazing daughter. If god made her deaf in order to have that totally awesome personality, then that is fine with me. Let everyone know how everything turns out.
Good Luck,
K.

I am an audiologist and audio testing is fairly basic. What I usually do with a child your son's age is what is called play testing. He will wear headphones and when he hears a beeping sound throw a block or some other toy on the ground or into the bucket. We test each ear individually so we get info about each ear. We will usually have him repeat words to see what is the softest level he can repeat back. I also, and I would expect your audiologist, to do the pressure test again. If there is no fluid other testing can be done depending on how cooperative your son is. I try to make it as fun as possible so the child is not scared. Mom or dad can be in the room if needed. Just from what you have said, responds when spoken to etc, he probably has normal hearing in at least one ear and speech therapy will be needed to clear things up. Good luck. A.

My son had this test done as well. He was speech delayed at three as well. He was dx High Functioning Autism at 4 yrs 7 mo. He has had lots of speech therapy and is now at 6yrs 4 mos is finishing kinder and can be understood almost perfectly by all. He has a very large vocab and huge comprehension. His speech issues that remain are consistent with kids his age. Sometimes kids need a lot of intervention to get them "caught-up." Push for what you think he needs--your his best advocate. Hope this helps and good luck! J.

My son is 2 1/2 now. He was diagnosed with speech delay at 18 months. Because of his history of ear infections (and he had tubes in at 9 months), they checked his hearing. The tubes feel out, infections came back. He's now scheduled for his second set of tubes and removal of his adnoids (sp?). Through all that, he has started talking, singing, and everything else like CRAZY in the last couple months. No more speech delay. He's had 2 hearing tests. They're pretty neat. With the younger kids, the parents are usually involved and sit with them. We did speech therapy for a little while. It was useful, but our sone was just too young and we thought he was fine and we stopped. If you're covered by insurance, just go with the flow and give your son opportunities. Don't be hard on yourself or anything like that. He'll be fine!! :-)

My son had an audio hearing test at 2 yrs old. The test was pretty scary for him. I went with him in a dark room - the test was done with puppets talking and they really scared him. The doctor stopped the test because my son couldn't stop crying. He had tubes put in the next month and hasn't had any trouble since.

I wouldn't worry to much.... Sometimes speech is delayed depending on how often you read to him or he is around other people. If he isn't around others, he won't pick up speech as quickly.

However, you stated he was three -- did they do a newborn hearing test on him? My 3 year old didn't have one done, but my 2 year old did and didn't pass the newborn screening, which we were able to find the hearing loss so much sooner. My 2 year old has a unilateral hearing lost, and she speaks but not always clearly.

Speech will come in time, but it's good to be concerned and have it checked out that way you can get the help you may need.

My daughter did this when she was 21 months old. I sat with her in a sound proof room and they piped in different sounds (a bird chirping, for instance) from different speakers and watched her eyes to see if they looked for the source of the sound. It was pretty painless and I thought it was interesting. The worst part was that they said she had lots of earwax, so they actually put her in a straight jacket type of thing and cleaned her ears with I dont' even remember what, but she was screaming the whole time. But after that, she was fine, she just never wanted to got to the doctor again!

My son was also speech delayed at 3 and getting frustrated when he didn't understand me. He is now 6 and has been diagnosed with CAPD. Make sure they test him for Central Auditory Processing Disorder. His hearing test can come back prefectly fine but between the ear and the brain the signal gets all jumbled. Good Luck!

Hi! the hearing test is very easy. I go to Kaiser and this is what they do there. A parent and the child go into a sound proof room. The child put on a stero headset and will hear sounds in his/her ear. He will have a gadget with a button to push everytime he hears a sound through the headsets. this will measure his hearing. Very harmless and doesn't hurt. The only discomfort is when they check the ears. Nothing to worry about, my dau been going since 2nd grade. Scared at first but couldn't wait for the next time. Now she is 15 1/2.
I went to a speech therapist way back when I was in 1st grade. They make it fun and enjoyable.

My son also had similar problems. he had ear infections regularly. He had tubes in his ears also. It wasn't until he was in 4th grade that we found out he has asperges syndrome. It's like the high fuctioning end of autism. This is just a worse case senario. I'm sure your son will be fine. R.

My daughter went through the same thing before getting approved for speech therapy.

The hearing test is painless - they put your child in a sound proof room I was allowed to go in because my daughter was 2 - the put on some headphones - you can tell him he is a pilot or space ship driver - they play some tones and the child lifts up a hand to say which ear they hear the sound coming from...

The speech therapist is a bit more intensive - the hearing test is pretty short and can be fun depending on the way the technitian explains things.

I've been through soemthing similar to that with my son who is only 8 months! I just wanted to tell you the outcome for us was an absolute miracle!!! I was told my son was deaf in one ear from birth. So they tested and tested him and he failed all of his tests. Then when we went into do a sedation and extensive hearing test they found fluid in his ear. (Which the docs are saying it could have been there the entire time without them seeing it.) So he was scheduled for surgery to put a tube in that one ear and it went well aside from the nights and mornings he couldn't eat! (I think that's the worst part.) Well he went in to do the sedation test, the ASSR, and he passed with flying colors and he's completely normal! So good luck and pray about it. Everything will work out in the end!

Bridget,

We've had my older son's hearing tested twice. Once at 2 and again at 3. The first time was through Early Intervention and the second time was through the school district. In his case, his hearing is normal but the school district determined that he's autistic. Language delays are the only really obvious problems he has (although their are others and they are becoming more noticable as he gets older, he's almost 4 now). Anyway, the hearing tests themselves aren't any big deal. It takes about half an hour or so depending on how cooperative your child is. If you haven't made contact with the school district for an evaluation, you should. They do services for kids with all sorts of delays and their services are free. We do private speech therapy too and it is $120 an hour and our insurance won't cover any of it (they only cover speech therapy if it is accident or surgery related, not developmental), so I can't stress enough how important it is to seek out all of the free services you can find. When you start paying for private therapy, it gets realy expensive, really fast. You didn't mention where you are at but if you are in Las Vegas, email me (____@____.com) and I'll give you the contact info you need for the school district. And I would recommend starting speech therapy as soon as possible. The farther behind your child gets, the harder it is to catch up.

T.