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Toddlers: 24 Months+
adellel
member
Two Year Old Speech Delayed
adellel
member
Hi Everyone,
DS will be 2 in a couple of weeks. In January, he had tubes put in his ears. When we had this done, the doctor said that the fluid in there was so thick, it was no wonder he did not seem to hear! Anyway, due to this fluid, our son is speech delayed.
It has been 3 months since he had the tubes, and I have seen little improvement in his speech. While my son has incredibly learned his entire alphabet (he can point at any letter I tell him) and can count to 10 (the numbers will be mixed up on a page and he can point to them in order), the only things he will say are a few letters (M, A, L, and O). Most of the sounds coming out of his mouth don't even really sound like babble - they sometimes sound like whining or just loud squeals.
Has anyone else had any sort of speech delay with their children due to hearing issues? If so, what have you done to help your child, and have you seen any of the same issues? We see our doctor for his 2 yr appt in June. My thought is to wait until then and just give him time - He spent almost a year with ear infections and has not heard for so long. At the same time, I am wondering if there is something more possibly going on.
Thanks!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Two Year Old Speech Delayed
Did they do any following hearing testing on your LO? I think I would be concerned that something more was impacting his hearing. Either that the fluid didn't drain as it should, or the tubes are blocked, or that there is more going on than just ear infections. I'd probably call the dr now and ask about having his hearing tested again, and probably inquire about having evaluated for speech therapy. Since his hearing was impacted for so long he might just need a little boost for his language development.
DD1 Feb 2010
DD2 Sept 2011
Is he in speech therapy? If he's not i would get him in ASAP.
if he is, I would assume it would take more than a few months to get on track especially if the fluid had been there for a considerable time.
Mine had the same issues - tubes in, couldn't hear at all in right ear. He is receiving speech services through Early Intervention. Look for contact info on your state's dept of health webpage. It's free until age 3.
First of all - I don't think you need to stress. It's very normal for children to have a speech delay after having fluid in their ears for that long. (I work with kids with ear fluid almost every day) I would be curious to know if he passed a hearing exam after the tubes were in place. And if you are questioning his hearing, I would go back in for another evaluation - just to be sure. I also agree with the other posts about contacting early intervention for an evaluation. They see kids like him all the time. They will be able to evaluate him and let you know how aggressive you need to be.
So in a nutshell - yes, I would look into it a little more.
My daughter had tubes put in back in November right before her second birthday. At the time she had hearing loss in both ears due to very thick fluid blocking her ears. In Texas you have to have less than 10 words at two to qualify for EI, so we were out of luck with that. We did pursue private speech therapy though.
She has been in therapy for almost 6 months. Progress is slow, but she's getting there. She's now imitating almost 100% of the time and her word list has tripled since the beginning of the year. However, speech doesn't always immediately improve right after surgery like everyone promises. Hang in there!