Claire went to see an audiologist today. We had a speech evaluation done several weeks ago and Claire was diagnosed with an articulation delay. Basically, that means that developmentally, her speech is fine, but she has trouble articulating her words, which makes her speech difficult to understand to the unfamiliar listener.
Before we could begin speech therapy, we had to have a hearing exam just to make sure everything was okay in that department. Claire was a little angel during the entire one hour exam. She is truly an therapist's dream and I know once she starts speech therapy, she will excel! She sat as still as could be, followed all of her instructions and picked up on all of the hearing games quickly.
Everything was a-okay in her right ear, but her left ear was just below normal and we think it was because she has a hole in her left eardrum (which is probably from her ear tube that we think just recently fell out). So ... next on the agenda is a trip to the ENT to get the ear tubes removed (they are still in her ears, but no longer in her ear drums) and see if her ear drum needs to be patched, and then a trip back to the audiologist to get her left ear checked again. Fortunately, the audiologist determined that all of her hearing organs in her left ear were functioning correctly and it was a middle ear problem causing the hearing deficiency. That is good because those problems can be fixed. The audiologist also gave us the go ahead to start speech therapy too so I will get that lined up to start soon I hope.
Looks like our summer of fun in the sun may be partially spent in a doctor's office. However, I am very thankful that this is a very minor health issue in the whole grand scheme of things. I am aware that many parents and children spend much of their lives in a hospital sick with things like cancer and other diseases and disorders. I praise God that there were no major problems with Claire's hearing. I am also very thankful that we have good insurance that covers all of this 100% ... it makes it much easier to stomach knowing that there are no direct financial ramifications as there are with many other families.
I promise to get some new posts up soon! With pictures! I have been quite behind and overwhelmed with everything since we got back from vacation last week. Hopefully I will get all caught up soon, but tomorrow, we are promised a day of heat and sunshine so we are headed to the pool!
Before we could begin speech therapy, we had to have a hearing exam just to make sure everything was okay in that department. Claire was a little angel during the entire one hour exam. She is truly an therapist's dream and I know once she starts speech therapy, she will excel! She sat as still as could be, followed all of her instructions and picked up on all of the hearing games quickly.
Everything was a-okay in her right ear, but her left ear was just below normal and we think it was because she has a hole in her left eardrum (which is probably from her ear tube that we think just recently fell out). So ... next on the agenda is a trip to the ENT to get the ear tubes removed (they are still in her ears, but no longer in her ear drums) and see if her ear drum needs to be patched, and then a trip back to the audiologist to get her left ear checked again. Fortunately, the audiologist determined that all of her hearing organs in her left ear were functioning correctly and it was a middle ear problem causing the hearing deficiency. That is good because those problems can be fixed. The audiologist also gave us the go ahead to start speech therapy too so I will get that lined up to start soon I hope.
Looks like our summer of fun in the sun may be partially spent in a doctor's office. However, I am very thankful that this is a very minor health issue in the whole grand scheme of things. I am aware that many parents and children spend much of their lives in a hospital sick with things like cancer and other diseases and disorders. I praise God that there were no major problems with Claire's hearing. I am also very thankful that we have good insurance that covers all of this 100% ... it makes it much easier to stomach knowing that there are no direct financial ramifications as there are with many other families.
I promise to get some new posts up soon! With pictures! I have been quite behind and overwhelmed with everything since we got back from vacation last week. Hopefully I will get all caught up soon, but tomorrow, we are promised a day of heat and sunshine so we are headed to the pool!
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