Trip to the Hearing Clinic

Although I sometimes ask my older children if their ears are working, today's trip had nothing to do with them. Rob and I decided, however, that we should probably get Coley's ears tested. He has some apparent speech delays (which could be attributed to any number of things- I expound on this below), but it made sense to first have his ears checked. We have been considering this for a while now, and finally a few weeks ago I called and got an appointment.

Today was the day! I called earlier in the week to get an idea of how long the appointment would last and what exactly they would be doing so I could make appropriate plans for our day and prepare Cole a bit for this new experience. I did a mini (non scientific) simulation last night with all four kids. I also took Robbie along while my mom stayed with the girls.

Why did I bring Robbie? Sometime after I made the appointment and made arrangements for my mom to come over, I realized Cole has NEVER gone anywhere with just me. We ALWAYS have at least one other child with us. If there are only two kids along, it is usually Rachel, but there are times we have split up in other combos, but anyway, I digress. I was a bit concerned (and maybe without cause) that if I took him away from home by himself, to a strange, new place, to meet this new person (the audiologist), and had him do strange new things, it might freak him out a bit. Robbie was not allowed to go in the room with us, but the receptionist said it would be fine to bring someone else along as long as he/she would be comfortable sitting alone in the lobby during the exam . . . thus Robbie being the best choice, and he was more than willing to do it. It was a good thing we did too because we had to wait 30 minutes in the waiting room which wasn't really a kid friendly place, and although he wasn't upset, Cole did keeping say "go home" every few minutes.

We did finally get back to the exam room, and Cole did awesome! At 2 1/2 years, he was fell in the inbetween stage between two different kinds of testing methods. After doing the first one and it being fairly conclusive, but not quite exact, the audiologist explained the next level of testing but thought he might not be old enough to do it. I said he would likely be able to do it, and with some hesitation she completed that test as well. He did GREAT! That's my boy!

It confirmed her results from the first test that he can hear (and respond) like any other hearing two year old. He could hear all noises within speech range and high pitches as well. Results were somewhat inconclusive/inconsistent on low range sounds, but even if he really couldn't hear those, it wouldn't be affecting his speech at all. YEA!!

Why did we feel the need to do this?

We knew he could hear; he does respond to conversations, directions, etc. But just because he can hear, doesn't mean he is hearing the same way everyone else hears which could affect how he produces speech sounds.

Like I mentioned above (and anyone who is around him can tell) he is not all that chatty. The number of words he uses is significantly less than the average child his age.

Examples: A week before his second birthday, he was probably only saying 10 words regularly. No two word phrases, or anything- just the basics . . . mom, dad, ball. A week after his second birthday, he added another five words, and shortly after another five words. An average two year old, however, is saying at least 30 words and beginning to combine words- mommy go, play outside.

Examples from our other children: At age two, Robbie was saying around 100 words and could carry on some form of conversation with me. At age 18 months, Alexa was saying 150 words and having complete conversations! At age two, Rachel was using about 50-60 words and using multiple two word combos.

Anyway, he has continued to add words to his vocabulary, but his language is still somewhat stilted. He does have several pairs of words that sound the same such as show/shoe and hoola-hoop/swimsuit (strange one, I know! They both kind of sound like "hoo-hoot") which is typical for early talkers, but can be frustrating for him when we aren't sure which one he is trying to say. Just in the last couple of weeks (AFTER I made the appt., of course) has he started to put words together. (yippee!)

Moving on, I think he will develop just fine; he is just going to do so at his own pace. The next step if we have concerns is to have him see a speech pathologist. My feelings right now are to wait a bit seeing as he has made some big improvements over the last month, but I will continue to stay in tune with how he is doing.

What are the other possible reasons for his speech delay?
(I did promise to cover this earlier)

-He is the youngest child in the family.
-He is a twin.
-He is a boy.

Any one of those factors increases a child's chance to have issues with speech delay, and all three are true for him.

For now, we will just encourage him to keep talking -and tell the other kids not to talk for him- to see what he can do! He is such a sweet boy and has really enjoyed being able to communicate better over the last month. I don't want to rush him for something he is not ready to do, but I don't want him to be frustrated and not have the support he needs (if he needs it).