Is It a Hearing Problem?

[Greenlea]

I'm hoping to get some advice, possibly from other mothers who have children with hearing problems.  But my son's sitter sent me an email saying she thinks he has a hearing problem.  He is 28 mths old and while he does have some speech difficulties, I don't think he's delayed and is normal for his age, but she keeps thinking differently.  My DC says a lot of words, he uses sentences, asks questions, follows commands, etc.  One of the main problems is he doesn't pronounce all his letters (like B, D, L, & N) and you cant' always understand what he is saying. 

Here's the email she sent: "His speech may be related to not hearing sounds correctly.  I have been working with him on beginning sounds and he just can't pick them up. He try's so hard when we work on letters, but I can see a road block. I can see that some behaviors are arising as a result of communication. I would hate for him to keep struggling or getting into trouble if it's truly he's not hearing correctly. I understand that a parent doesn't want to hear someone telling them there could be something going on, but I am concerned and the sooner we find out the better. The way I would describe his speech is as if he's talking from his throat, and he may be hearing sounds as if he's underwater. Jay was having these issues at first, more severe because of his delays. And we found out he just needed tubes in his ears nd then he started talking. He is NOT delayed, he's very smart and that's why I'm so concerned that if not checked we could be on the road to a very frustrated child. I already observe him getting mad when the other kids don't understand him and he keeps trying to say what he means. Also when you say something and he repeats could be him trying to make sense of what it is we said. I have some recommendations of places if you'd like."

A big problem of hers is she compares him and his speech to "Jay", her son, but there really is no comparisson.  Jay is 5, severly delayed & has down syndrome.  They simply don't have the same milestones.  My DC does repeat things you say to him, but if he's repeating them that means he can hear them right?  I put on an alphabet DVD we have and he repeats the letters & the words.

I know you probably won't be able to tell me much unless you've actually heard him talk, but I just don't know what to do.  She won't drop it but I personally don't think he has a hearing problem.  I think his speech, while not perfect, is normal for a 28 mth old.  She has him only 3 days a week.  What do you think?  Should I bring him in for a hearing test just to shut her up?  Or stick to my instincts and insist he does not have a hearing problem.  And at this age, should I be getting him into speech?  She's really stressing me out about this.

I know he can hear, I guess maybe she thinks what he's hearing is distorted though?  If you child had hearing problems what were the signs?

[pbjmama]

Was his hearing tested as a newborn? Has he had any previous ear damage or any severe illness? My general rule is that if someone who interacts with your child on a regular basis mentions that there may be something going on it should be checked out. Unfortunately the repeat test doesn't mean he can hear at the level he should hear. It could be he can only hear out of one ear, can only hear sounds a certain levels (women's voices are generally higher than men's voices) etc. You can get a basic hearing test free through early intervention (call your school district). There are many parents who have been very surprised to find out that their child has trouble hearing, seeing, etc.

I wouldn't bother with speech (articulation) therapy until after 3 yo. And I have a kid who has had language and articulation delays.

[Greenlea]

Yes, his hearing was fine at birth.  He has no ear damage, and has never even had an ear infection.

[bananabee]

I used to work with deaf and hard of hearing children, and that is a common problem - not hearing all the sounds. Personally I have a lot of sound discrimination problems. I think it's worth checking out. I think it's good that your sitter is so attentative. Some people with hearing problems get pretty far in life before anyone notices. Some children are even totally deaf and no one realizes it until they're in kindergarten. If it is a hearing problem, it's helpful to know what kind. Hearing tests are far from traumatic, so I don't think it would hurt anything to get it checked out. 

On the same token, your kid sounds pretty normal. I also think ALL children should have their hearing tested. What goes in our ears is information, and the more complete it is, the more we have to work with. 

[LynnS6]

The general rule of thumb is that a child should be 25% understandable for  every year of life -- so at 2 + 4 months, I'd expect him to be about 60% intelligible. It sounds like he meets that.

The only reason to be concerned would be (a) if he's leaving off the beginning sounds of a lot of words or (b) he's not progressing in learning new sounds. "B" and "N" are usually early sounds and so it is a bit unusual that he doesn't have them yet, but not so unusual that I'd worry yet.

Do you have any other 2 year olds that you can compare him to? Does your daycare provider have other 2 year olds or mostly older kids with her? If it's mostly older kids and she's not got a great standard for comparison for a typically developing 2 year old, I wouldn't worry yet, but I would keep an eye on his speech. If he continues to learn new sounds and become clearer over time, he's probably fine. If he doesn't or seems to be progressing pretty slowly, you should get a hearing test at age 3. It's perfectly possible to have fluid in your ears and never have had an ear infection. But it's probably not the case here.

[Faither]

Have you called his ped? We have the same "problem" with my DD. She will only "talk" to my husband. When we called the ped to ask for a hearing test they said it was difficult for them to test a 20 months old but that they would do it if we wanted it done. Maybe the ped can do a hearing test and just rule that out.

[littlest birds]

Does he perk up if you talk about something he adores across a room?  My ds had a preschool teacher question this when he was a little past 2yo because he often did not respond when addressed. However, if you mentioned "candy" he ALWAYS perked up, even at a gentle volume.  He has attention issues, though.  He also found verbal communication difficult but was never behind in ability--he just got frustrated with having his wishes known.  He had no actual speech delays nor hearing problem.

If it is not a problem for you to have him tested, then you might do it.  A quick screen to rule that out would help the sitter relationship regardless.  It is easy for me to imagine that her expectations are shaped too much by her personal experience, and also she might expect too much of your ds when "working on" the sounds, because she knows he's normal and has developmentally too high expectations of a child who isn't impaired.  It's so hard to tell, but it's obviously affecting your sitter's interactions with him and that would worry me in itself.  Best wishes, and I hope everything turns out okay.

[Greenlea]

He responds to us just fine and whispers to us and I believe hears just fine as he routine follows directions and commands.  Over the weekend his vocabulary just skyrocketed and I think he's doing great.  We had pizza Sat. night and he was saying Ca--tza instead of pizza.  Well we worked with him for like 2 minutes and had him saying pizza the right way, so I'm not even really sure what she's talking about with him not picking up sounds.  The sitter keeps commenting too on how he repeats words and sounds after you say them, she thinks its cuz he can't hear the sound you're making.  But I thought repetition was normal toddler behavior?

I have an appt later this month to see his ped so I'll ask her then what she thinks.  My kids are the youngest kids she has right now, but I'm pretty sure she's watch young kids before.  And even her sister (who used to watch my son) said his speech was getting better.  I'm not against getting a hearing test if my ped feels thats what he needs.

[foxsmama]

It might be worth it to take your son in for a hearing test. DS has degenerative hearing loss. He tested fine as a newborn, but has been slowly losing his hearing over the past year and a half, so slowly that it was easy to miss at first. An audiologist can do a quick test where they stick little 'buds' in your childs ears to check hearing. it's quick and easy.

[crunchy_mommy]

I agree that it wouldn't hurt anything to just have him tested. It should be free/cheap and painless, so I guess I wonder why you are reluctant to test him???

I think you're right that he sounds mostly like a normal 2yo, most of whom are really hard to understand. However, I think parents tend to understand much more of what our children say -- so even though he might be 60% intelligible to you, he may be only 30% intelligible to the sitter & even less to strangers. So basically, it can be hard to be objective in this situation, and an outside opinion couldn't hurt...

My 2yo (who is about 90% intelligible to strangers so unlikely to have any hearing problem) does the repeating thing too. He often echos what we or others say. I don't know if it's normal, though I do know that none of his friends do it, at least not with the frequency DS does. It's something I'm keeping an eye on because of his social/emotional delays, but Early Intervention isn't at all concerned about it because he has so much functional vocabulary...

[mommyofgb]

The repeating thing is usually when they don't understand what you are saying, so they repeat as an answer. My own dd used to do this when someone would ask her an odd open ended question, since she couldn't understand what they were saying, she would repeat the last few words of the question. Now she is on to just answering ''yes'' to questions she doesn't get. The repeating is gone, and a yes has replaced it. And as long as the repeating isn't mindless, its usually because they don't quite get what you are saying. It supposidly peaks at 30 months of age and declines from there. I had dd tested through EI since she seemed behind to me, and these were all my concerns too and the SLP explained them to me, especially the repeating thing which really concerned me, that its totally normal when they don't exactly get what you are asking them. She is still slightly behind peers at newly 3 but she is progressing rapidly these days, asking all sorts of questions, talking about everything and I can understand ALL of her speech. She is far above the normal range, but slightly behind the average which sounds like where your son is at. If you feel there is an issue there is nothing wrong with getting an eval. Its not a scary ordeal, and it will put your mind at ease. It sounds to me like your son is doing just fine.

[pranava]

My son did tons of repeating.  Echolalia in toddlers is supposed to peak at 2 1/2 I think and then decrease.  It's only a problem if it continues well past 3.  He's practicing and that should be encouraged.  how is he ever going to pronounce things correctly if he doesn't immitate adult speech and practice.

Still, it couldn't hurt to have a hearing test for the dropping sounds issue -  just in case.

Originally Posted by Greenlea 

The sitter keeps commenting too on how he repeats words and sounds after you say them, she thinks its cuz he can't hear the sound you're making.  But I thought repetition was normal toddler behavior?

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by mommyofgb 

The repeating thing is usually when they don't understand what you are saying, so they repeat as an answer.

Or with my DS, it's more... I don't know, he likes the sound of the words or something... because I know he does understand the words, he just repeats them anyway. He also recites books and conversations he's overheard and stuff. I guess maybe it's a way of practicing language??