Seriously frustrated with the Huh?

[jadedqueen123]

Ok, so DD understands and speaks many, many words. She hears fine as well. She is driving me batty though! For a few months now whenever I say anything to her, even something I know she understands she says 'huh?'.

So a typical conversation may be ~me~ Chloe do you want to take a bath? Chloe~huh? Me, do you want to take a bath? Chloe~huh? Me, a bath, do you want to take a bath? Chloe~huh?, bath? ok!

Should I keep repeating myself to her? On occasion I just say, 'you heard me' and leave it at that. I know she can hear/understand me so it is frustrating to repeat myself umpteen million times! Her dad's hearing is a bit lacking from lots of trap shooting as a child so he does tend to say huh a lot so it may be she is getting this from him. How to I stop this insane cycle?

[Wisteriacow]

Coming from the other side of this issue, people often have to repeat themselves to me. I definitely heard them the first time or two but didn't necessarily understand them. For the longest time I thought I had a hearing problem but once I was tested it was determined that I hear fine. The problem is focus. If I'm not already engaged in the conversation, if someone suddenly speaks to me, I'm clueless. Perhaps your daughter is focused on something else when you're talking to her?

[SeekingSerenity]

My DS goes through this occasionally. Sometimes it is due to distraction, but if it starts to be a trend with every conversation, I check his ears. Yes, his hearing is fine, but he tends to have an issue with ear wax buildup. There have been times when I check his ears and cannot even visualize his eardrums. Most of the time some perioxide and gentle (not deep) swiping with a cotton swab will clear up the problem, but occasionally it will build up so badly that I have to irrigate with warm water and a syringe. That will fix the hearing issue, though sometimes by then the "Huh?" thing has become habit. He'll answer like your DD at that point... "Huh? Oh, yeah, that's okay."

Just a thought. HTH!

[pbjmama]

You say her hearing is fine - have you had her tested?

[jadedqueen123]

Thanks for the suggestions. It may be that she is just distracted, although she is usually making eye contact with me when she is saying huh. I suppose I can appear to be paying attention though by making eye contact but not really hearing what is being said.

I can see clearly into her ears and she doesn't seem to have any wax buildup, she did just have her well baby check within the last month or so and the Dr. didn't say anything about excessive wax in her ears.

Due to my son having problems with hearing (undetected fluid behind ear drum), we did have her hearing tested and she 'passed' with flying colors when she was about twelve months. In addition they automatically screen them at birth as well in my state so she has been tested twice. Plus, her vocabulary is very extensive which I don't think we would be seeing if she couldn't hear.

Thanks again for the input, it's great to get more ideas on what it could be!

Edit to add: I should have watched my wording in the original post. I embellished a bit. She doesn't say huh every time I speak to her but about 50% of the time.

[HappilyEvrAfter]

It could be a combination or just modeling.

To be sure, I would def have her ears looked at by a Dr. My son just had a set of tubes put in because of all the fluid that pocketed in them.
It's cured about 80% of the "huh?s"...and we're getting better with the habitual part.

But, I say "Huh?" too because of bad hearing and I think a smidge of it is modeling.

Rule of elimination.
I'd have her ears looked at and have her hearing tested to be sure.
If that's all ok then change the habit. Make sure you've got her attention 100% (eye contact, body position, etc) before speaking and say something only once. Then have her repeat it back to you.
That's just what seems to be helping us break the HUH cycle here.
Even I am trying to break the habit the same way. DS makes sure to get my eye contact first. It's actually helped.

Good luck!!

ETA: I must have been typing up this post while you were typing too...so that accounts for me answering some of the things you already stated! Cheers!

[dbl_my_luv]

DS started doing that or asking "what did you say" when he was 4ish. I even asked his preschool teacher if he seemed to have any trouble hearing there, and then went to have him tested by a specialist. His hearing is fine... he just picked up the habit somewhere and couldn't break it. Then DD started mimicking him... she was barely 2 and just talking, but she could say "huh" and "what" like a champ!

I would just repeat myself and really hardly noticed, but it was driving DH nuts. He cleverly started asking "What did you hear me say?" whenever the kids would give a "huh" or "what?" and it worked like a charm. DS would stop and think, and DD would smile and repeat what she could, or go do whatever she was asked in the first place.

I'd definitely try turning it around on your DD and see if that helps.