DS7 has been referred to rehabilitation services

[dansamy]

because of his hearing. We'd had a pediatrician who perpetually told me that his hearing was fine. Well, in K5, we noticed he was slurring his Rs. This year, in 1st, we noticed he was teaching himself to read lips. We changed pediatricians. The new ped referred him to a pediatric ENT. They tested him with their audiology dept. Audiology says they get conflicting results, but the deviances are enough to refer him to the Dept of Rehabilitative Services for further eval. The new ped says it's most likely permanent, irreversible damage. I'm just bummed, disappointed and upset with myself as a parent. I feel like I wasn't proactive enough.

 

[Libbyt]

Don't be discouraged! I'm a firm believer that, especially at this age, brain development is still happening and your son can definitely improve!!!! We had exactly the same problem with our daughter's vision. We kept visiting a opthalmologist with concerns that one eye was turning in, they kept telling us all was fine - for YEARS. Finally when she was 8, we wised up and took her to see a specialist and she set us up for surgery immediately. When we went in, our dd had ZERO depth perception and the doctor warned us that the window for that was probably past - that once that was lost, it would be very unusual to regain it. Now she has excellent depth perception! Her vision will never be great because (we've discovered many years later) she has optic nerve abnormalities due to a metabolic disorder.

Our daughter's hearing was also in question (she had no speech early on and hearing tests were inconclusive).....we sent her to a preK for deaf children so that she (and we) could learn to sign and that was the best thing ever - the physical aspect of signing really helped her speech to develop. So use ANY AND ALL means to focus on your son's hearing and speech development - it CAN WORK!!!! If necessary, search until you find a therapist who is willing to try anything, even unconventional methods, to help your son..........the therapists who helped us the most were the ones who were just willing to TRY - not just think "well this has never helped anyone before, research says it won't work" - you have to think outside the box and work with therapists and doctors who will do the same! Good luck - hang in there - it can happen!

Libby

 

[koolaidmoms]

Our DD (now 9) was not diagnosed with her bi-lateral midrange hearing loss until she was 5. Her first hearing test at birth was abnormal but the second test they did came back okay. We always thought something was wrong with her but we were way off base. All her drs hearing tests came back normal too (they still do LOL and she has a documented moderate loss by an ENT).

We immediately got her in a program for hard of hearing and deaf children for kindergarten. She stayed there until mid way through second grade. They were great for her to learn coping and advocacy skills. She learned to ask people to look at her when they spoke, repeat things if necessary and critically think about what she was really hearing. She learned some sign and made some great friends. Though she no longer attends that school the things she learned there help her in the regular classroom as do we as her advocates in situations she doesn't quite know how to handle.

Did we feel like failures? Yes, but over time the doctor talked to us and showed us how DD had developed really great coping skills to overcome the issue before it was even diagnosed. We could really not have known what the issue was. Did we take her to the dr when we thought something was wrong? Yes. Should we have pushed harder? Maybe.

We were looking at social-development issues never at a hearing loss. She would invade others personal space (to hear what they were saying and to get a better look at their faces and lips - we now know), she would make inappropriate comments that had nothing to do with the conversation (she was misunderstanding certain words and key elements which would take the conversation in a whole new direction for her). You do the best with what you know. Your a good mom for supporting him and realizing there was an issue and getting it taken care of now.