Last week's speech evaluation was only Round One for Michael... Today he had his Department of Health hearing screen. This testing hopefully rules out any medical reason for his speech delay, such as inner ear fluid, tone difficulties, or partial deafness. We left Katie in the trusty hands of some awesome neighbors so that Mom could totally focus on the little one for the afternoon. The hearing test was humorous in some ways... Seriously, how do you tell if a non-talking 18-month-old can hear something? Traci basically had to sit Michael on her lap in a darkened room, facing the audiologist through an opaque window. All kinds of strange sounds and pitches would come out of speakers all around the room, and the audiologist would gauge Michael's reactions. At first she followed a pattern (sounds from the left, sounds from the right, back and forth), and then she switched it up as soon as she noticed that he was anticipating where the sounds would come from. It was hard for Traci to hold in her chuckles as Michael started "talking back" and pointing at the speakers. He kept getting startled, which was funny as well. Thankfully, he aced the test. Then, he was to be given a "tymp test," where an instrument is inserted into the ear to test the health of the middle ear. But, the poor guy had too much ear wax to successfully perform the test. ARGH! That means, unless we get the OK from our pediatrician, we may have to go back to re-do the tests. Will this ever end???? Thankfully, the little guy was a trooper and only complained with the inner ear stuff. And Katie? She announced that she wanted to move in with the neighbors, so we guess she had fun too!
March 14, 2011
No More Tests, Ma!
Last week's speech evaluation was only Round One for Michael... Today he had his Department of Health hearing screen. This testing hopefully rules out any medical reason for his speech delay, such as inner ear fluid, tone difficulties, or partial deafness. We left Katie in the trusty hands of some awesome neighbors so that Mom could totally focus on the little one for the afternoon. The hearing test was humorous in some ways... Seriously, how do you tell if a non-talking 18-month-old can hear something? Traci basically had to sit Michael on her lap in a darkened room, facing the audiologist through an opaque window. All kinds of strange sounds and pitches would come out of speakers all around the room, and the audiologist would gauge Michael's reactions. At first she followed a pattern (sounds from the left, sounds from the right, back and forth), and then she switched it up as soon as she noticed that he was anticipating where the sounds would come from. It was hard for Traci to hold in her chuckles as Michael started "talking back" and pointing at the speakers. He kept getting startled, which was funny as well. Thankfully, he aced the test. Then, he was to be given a "tymp test," where an instrument is inserted into the ear to test the health of the middle ear. But, the poor guy had too much ear wax to successfully perform the test. ARGH! That means, unless we get the OK from our pediatrician, we may have to go back to re-do the tests. Will this ever end???? Thankfully, the little guy was a trooper and only complained with the inner ear stuff. And Katie? She announced that she wanted to move in with the neighbors, so we guess she had fun too!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
We did the hearing test too. At least you felt that Michael actually cared about the sounds. Jackie was so indifferent especially towards the end when they got softer that I was surprised to hear from the audiologist that she was fine. Our guy did tell me that generally this is a formality because if they passed the newborn test that pretty much says that they'll continue to pass but you never know. Good luck.
Post a Comment