"huh? HUUHHH???" Hearing or behavioral?

[LiLStar]

Ever since around dd turned 3 (thats about when I realized it) she's said "huh?" a lot and needs us to repeat a few times before understanding. Very frequently. At her 3yo wcv she had fluid in her ears. Took her to the chiro a couple weeks after that and figured that would take care of the problem. Never noticed a difference in her. Then a few weeks ago we went to the chiro again. Chiro checked her ears and there was fluid, then did some adjustments to drain them. I still don't notice a difference, but ds had a wbv today and I took advantage and asked the ped to peek into dd's ears too (hey, our copays recently doubled gotta get our money's worth!) and they were clear. So.. I got the information I was looking for. Even with no fluid, dd still acts as though she has a difficult time hearing. Ped suggested it could simply be behavioral. Any thoughts/experiences on this? Speech is good. Not perfect by any means, but one would not expect a 3 year old's speech to be perfect anyway. She did "fail" the newborn hearing exam in the hospital but that was more of an equipment failure and they referred her to the audiologist simply to cover their bases. She had the ABR test at 2 months old and passed.

So.. any experience with diagnosing a hearing problem in a toddler/preschooler? Or, even NOT diagnosing a hearing problem when you suspected one?

[staceychev]

For my DD (who started around 3-1/2 with "what? what?"), she tested fine at her 4YO well-visit. Sometimes she tells me it's because I talk too fast, but honestly, I think she's just only tuned in partially to what I'm saying and she's focusing herself elsewhere.

[annamama]

DS went through that at the same age. I'm of the opinion that his hearing was fine, but he wasn't choosing, or was too distracted, to process what he heard. He stopped doing it after a little while.

[PatchChild]

Does she Huuu you when you're saying something fun that she wants to hear, or just at things she doesn't want to hear?

Lots of kids get really involved and forget to stay tuned in to what is going on around them. Starting out by saying their name, and then pausing for a couple seconds can really help.

That said, my son has a hearing loss so I'll also push to encourage you to get that checked as well. Kids are REALLY good at looking like their hearing everything. Yup, they talk like a three year old, but their speech tends to be missing certain things. The S sound and the quiet TH sound (like in thin) are some of the first sounds that get lost. If your daughter is missing a lot of these, I'd be a little more concerned.

[LiLStar]

She "huh"s when she asks me a question, and I'm answering that question! Simple things like "what are you doing?" "Changing River's diaper" "huh?" ..so its very basic things. And well.. yes, her S sounds aren't that great. "foon" "fot" for spoon and spot, for example. I never noticed the "th" sound, but I just went and asked her to say "think" for me and she said "fink"

I made an appt for her to have a hearing screening next week. I think its the same kind that they give infants in the hospital. I lucked out and there's a free screening. Its targeted towards home born babies who don't get the screening in the hospital but they'll check up to age 5

[Punchy Kaby]

I get fluid in my ears when I eat a lot of dairy. She could have some kind of allergy. It changes day to day depending on if I eat something I am sensitive to. After you get her hearing checked out maybe try some eliminations in her diet?

[snoopy5386]

My DD does this from time to time - it is maddening!! If it goes on for a couple of days it usually means she has an ear infection, that's her only "sign". But sometimes she does it for a couple of hours or maybe a day and that is behaviorial I believe. But oooohhhh does it drive me nuts!

[34me]

My ds#2 had negative pressure in one ear so that his eardrum looks like this (, instead of this ). We were told that he hears everything like he is at altitude (we areat 6000 feet already) and his ear needs to pop - which leads to the what? huh?

[leighi123]

Originally Posted by LiLStar

She "huh"s when she asks me a question, and I'm answering that question! Simple things like "what are you doing?" "Changing River's diaper" "huh?" ..so its very basic things. And well.. yes, her S sounds aren't that great. "foon" "fot" for spoon and spot, for example. I never noticed the "th" sound, but I just went and asked her to say "think" for me and she said "fink"

My ds is exactly the same way. He has been saying "say it again, I cant hear you' even if he is 2 feet from me when I say something. Its usually the simple stuff to, like your example.

And his 's' sounds are off. He speaks very well for his age and has a huge vocabulary, good grammer, and has been speaking very clearly from the time he was around 18months. But he says 'nink' for think, 'poon' for spoon, 'fider' for spider, etc.

[One_Girl]

It could be behavioral, this is a very common thing in that age. It could also be that she has hearing loss, my brother had 25% hearing loss and it wasn't diagnosed until he was in kindergarten when they did the routine hearing test. I think you should ask for a referal to have her hearing tested, and if she is having frequent problems with her ears and fluid take her to an Ear/Nose/and Throat doctor who specializes in that area of the body rather than the chiropractor.

[romacox]

She may well have what is called a "cookie bite". That is where they hear some sounds quite well, but have some trouble hearing others. For example I hear R and L very clearly, but F and P are hard for me to hear. It is hard for me to tell the difference between th and f unless I am looking at your lips. Thus I have no trouble hearing some words, but do others. Often I can take what I have heard, and through logical deduction figure out what was said.

I had hearing tests as a child, but no one discovered it. I was in my thirties when I noticed I was not hearing as well as others seem to be. In group conversations is where I noticed it. So I had my hearing checked at Walmart for free, and was told people with cookie bites are usually born with it, and it gets worse as we age.

When you talk to your child notice if she is watching your eyes or your lips. Most people look you in the eyes as you talk. But people with cookie bites tend to read lips. So they watch your lips more than your eyes. They often take time to respond to your questions or comments because they are using logical deductions to decide what you fully said.

It is not usually a serious hearing loss, but if she does have a cookie bite she will need to make adjustments. In a classroom sitting at the back of the room will cause her to miss much of what is being said. Children often adjust, and that is why cookie bites go undiagnosed. She is lucky that you have paid attention.

The hearing specialist may also recommend digital hearing aids as they can be adjusted to increase some sounds while not raising the decibels on the ones she does hear. Please keep us informed.

[LiLStar]

romacox, I just googled that and it reminds me of when I took ASL in high school, and the teacher was talking about how hearing loss isn't just like having the volume turned down, but that some frequencies will be easier to hear than others.

So I was googling and saw head trauma listed as a cause for hearing loss. And.. whoa, light bulb. At around 5-6 months old she rolled off the bed.. onto carpet. Wasn't a long fall or particularly hard floor, but oddly it was enough to fracture her skull. No loss of consciousness or anything, but she wasn't acting right at ALL and I knew something wasn't right. We started packing up for the ER, and she started vomiting.. suspicions confirmed, classic concussion symptoms. She got a head CT and was observed overnight and released, and that was the end of that, basically. I asked the dr to point to the place on her head where the skull was.. I still remember the location. I just searched pics of people with cochlear implants, and it was right about on the same part of her head that people where the CIs. So.. maybe a concussion right over the part of the brain that controls hearing did a bit of damage?! And then it would only affect one side, which would explain her fairly typical speech development. Ahh.. I think I might be on to something here.