Auditory processing difficulties?

kcisthebombdotcom

My DD has had fluid in her middle ear since about 12 months. At the time, we weren't really concerned because she didn't have an infection and her language was developing normally. Fast forward 6 months and her language development has stalled, both expressive and receptive. She has difficulties following the simplest of commands at times (even just acknowledging us when we say her name), while other times she listens well. We recently had her evaluated per EI and they mentioned the possibility of her having this.

Any other parents dealing with this? Any good resources for me to read?

oandmplus1

We are in the same boat you are. DD has delays with no specific diagnosis yet causing them, but sensory processing is definitely something she has difficulty with. She rarely responds to our voices and almost never to her name. She had a BAER test today to check her hearing so we know she is hearing, so at this point i think she is having auditory processing problems. 

Thank you to the pp for the information, I may try to find that book, I have yet to get any advice on how to help my DD with this yet. 

light52

My 6 year old has ADHD, ODD, and a speech and learning delay.  He is really behind in reading and writing so we tried teaching him through phonics this summer.  We've noticed he isn't hearing a lot of the sounds so he is scheduled for a screening next week for hearing and auditory processing.  Something in his brain isn't firing correctly and now we just need to narrow it down as to where the problem is coming from.

kcisthebombdotcom

Thank you for sharing all!

The whole "dreamy and clueless" thing sounds a lot like my DD. She spends a lot of the day in her own world and is unresponsive to her name quite often.

I'm really disappointed and upset that my pedi never informed me that ear problems could result in this.

Thanks for the book rec--I will have to check it out.

robynlesley

So does she still have fluid in her ears? Does she have any hearing loss? Are you completely sure she hears you--that she hears her name?  I *thought* my DS did but he ended up having mild hearing loss from fluid and while his language development did progress with the loss (thanks to EI/speech therapy), the leaps and bounds he made post-tubes were remarkable.

So I think the first thing you need to do is see a pediatric ENT and make sure there is no hearing difficulties.

And definitely contact EI to see if your DD qualifies for services to help get her language development back on track.

I don't know about auditory processing per se, even though my DS has some sensory issues, particularly auditory ones (loud noises in particular bother him). But the consensus (from his OT and the school district's OT) is that it's related to the hearing/tubes and to give it time to settle. So definitely follow up with people who know about this.

kcisthebombdotcom

robynlesley:

So does she still have fluid in her ears? Does she have any hearing loss? Are you completely sure she hears you--that she hears her name?  I *thought* my DS did but he ended up having mild hearing loss from fluid and while his language development did progress with the loss (thanks to EI/speech therapy), the leaps and bounds he made post-tubes were remarkable.

So I think the first thing you need to do is see a pediatric ENT and make sure there is no hearing difficulties.

And definitely contact EI to see if your DD qualifies for services to help get her language development back on track.

I don't know about auditory processing per se, even though my DS has some sensory issues, particularly auditory ones (loud noises in particular bother him). But the consensus (from his OT and the school district's OT) is that it's related to the hearing/tubes and to give it time to settle. So definitely follow up with people who know about this.

She does have some fluid in her ears still. The pedi said that it was not to the level that her hearing should be impacted though it was pretty severe at one point in time. We are in the process of getting referred to the pediatric ENT, we've already started with speech therapy so we're on the right path.

We did get her hearing tested but the results were inconclusive since she was uncooperative for most of the testing, but they did suspect some mild hearing loss based on what they did see. However, sometimes she is unresponsive to things that don't involve hearing, like signing more or all done which we've been doing with her for over 6 months now. That's why they suspect auditory processing.