A Plausible Answer
So awesome news… Garbanzo failed his hearing test with flying colors.
It was a total shock to us, since he can hear us and respond accordingly (not with words, but with responses in some form). But apparently, his eardrums aren’t moving at all, and in studying the results of his test, the audiologist looks as though his hearing is basically “Charlie Brown teacher style.” This explains a lot of his speech delay.
The ENT said that the correlation with muffled hearing and language all has to do with his specific age and developmental stage, where his language acquisition skills are at their peak. If Chickpea was hearing this way at her age, it wouldn’t be as big a deal, since she’s already mastered language skills (and then some, in her case). But the combination of him being at the age where one learns to talk, plus really muffled hearing, means that he’s not mimicking because… well, he can’t hear anything to mimic.
The other piece of good news to this is that it looks like the main plausible cause of the hearing loss is nothing more than a serious backup of fluid in his ears. The ENT guesses by the look of things, this fluid has been there at least six months, probably closer to a year. It’s so built up that it’s making his eardrums not move at all.
So Garbanzo is getting tubes, which will immediately show results since that will drain his ears. His speech should improve within two weeks of this surgery, should this be the cause of his speech delay. He will get his hearing rechecked then, and the speech therapist will do a whole new evaluation on him. We’ll know how to proceed from then on.
So we’re really excited! It’s great to get a specific answer to Garbanzo’s rather serious speech delay, and to have a game plan that will hopefully give us some quick results. He’ll probably still need speech therapy, since he’s pretty far behind, but once he can hear again, things will hopefully move forward instead of stagnant, as they have been.
Of course, we feel horribly that his hearing has been this bad for this long. He’s such a laid-back, easy-going guy, he just doesn’t complain about anything. We had no reason to think anything was up because, well, he was acting pretty much the same as he always does. His hearing loss just coincidentally aligned right with when he should have started speaking.
Praise God!
p.s. – I went ahead and added back comments. Not sure if I’ll leave it, but it’s there for now, should you be so inspired.
Wow. This is great news, assuming it helps resolve the issue.
Best wishes going into that procedure and so forth.
Great news. The tubes should really help. I’ve heard stories of immediate improvement post-op.
My youngest got PE tubes at 5 months. The surgery’s a quick in/out procedure. Just be sure to go heavy on the cuddles for the rest of the day after.
My guess, his eyes will light up once he realizes how much he can hear.
It’s always nice when they figure out what’s wrong AND they can fix it. My 3rd baby had the tube surgery because of ear infections when she was about 1 year old and it was pretty easy. Now she’s in speech therapy as an almost 4-year-old and she loves the therapy. It’s just a big play session to her, but it’s really working.
Don’t feel bad that you didn’t know what was happening. It’s hard not to feel guilty, I know. When my 2nd was a baby, he became critically ill, and we almost lost him, but I never noticed the problem until it was almost too late, because he was so mellow and easy-going – I had no idea he was so sick and it was hard to sit in the hospital every day and swallow that guilt. But you can’t always know, so you just do the best that you can.
Keep us posted, and good luck with the surgery. Prayers your way…
that’s exactly what happened to my daughter 2 years ago. fluid trapped behind her ear drums, no movement, failed hearing tests. so we had tubes put in and it really improved. in her case, there actually was hearing loss due to nerve damage, and just recently her tube fell out, got an ear infection and finally ruptured her drum. we are possbily looking at a second set of tubes for her. no fun for little ones. isn’t it nice to finally get some answers. praying the surgery goes smooth and his little ears can hear everything!
YAY for answers! Praying that this really helps!
So glad, Tsh & Kyle! Praying the surgery really helps – does this mean insurance will cover everything? (including speech therapy?)
@Katie – We’re hoping and praying. They’re definitely covering the surgery for tubes. Basically, a few weeks after the tubes he’ll get a whole new hearing test and speech evaluation, and we’ll take things from there. We’re hoping they’ll cover his speech therapy as rehab from the tubes or something. We’ll keep you posted!
That’s excellent, Tsh! Answers and solutions all at once. Praying for quick results!
Our 2 1/2 yo grandson, living in Germany with our daughter and son-in-law, was just diagnosed with hearing loss. He wasn’t making progress with his speech therapy and our daughter asked to see an ENT. Apparently his adenoids are so large they’ve trapped fluid in his tubes. He can’t hear at all. Above 60 decibels he could hear a loud sound but not know if it was an ambulance or a shout or an alarm.
He’s having surgery on July 16th to remove his adenoids and insert tubes.
I am happy for you, that you’ve discovered this earlier. I will keep your family in our prayers.
So happy for you! Within 2 weeks of having tubes, our Elise (then 18 months) tripled her vocabulary.
Glad to hear that your family is doing well and getting ready to welcome #3!