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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Hearing and Speech for Toddlers
fctjc1979 11:10 AM 06-21-2010
I've been doing some research on speech for my 15-month-old daughter. She has some hearing issues in her left ear that we will be going for further testing at the end of the month. They know that her hearing on that side is less than it should be, they just have to figure out what she is hearing and what she isn't hearing. I figured it might help the doctors to know whether she is on track for speech for her age. The problem is that my other daughter is 11 years old and I've never cared for a child that young in daycare, so I don't really have a good reference to know if she is behind. As I look at different websites on the net I'm getting a lot of conflicting information and I'm not sure which to trust. Her doctor is a general practitioner rather than a pediatrician so she wasn't comfortable with telling me if her speech was normal or not. Does anybody know any good websites that have information you know is sound? Or does anybody have a lot of experience with this age group that can help me out? Her hearing test is on the 28th and I would really like to be able to tell them whether I think she is behind in this area or not.
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Janet 11:15 AM 06-21-2010
My little sister is profoundly deaf and it took quite a while to get to that diagnosis. My parents got referred to an audiologist and her hearing was checked thoroughly. We didn't find out that she was deaf until she was about 2. She was diagnosed with mental retardation at first (this was 25 years ago, so diagnoses have come a long way since then). My advice to you is to see a pediatrician and ask for a referral to a physician who specializes in diagnosing hearing loss. I can't remember if you mentioned if you DD had a history of ear infections. Sometimes that can affect hearing. Good luck!
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fctjc1979 11:20 AM 06-21-2010
Yes, we were very lucky in that they caught it right after she was born. They screened her hearing before she ever left the hospital. They've been having her hearing checked every month or so because they wanted to know if there was a difference in one month to the next, that it might still be developing or something. At this last screening they said that they were confident that she had some hearing impairment in her left ear and that further testing should now be done to figure out what exactly she can hear. Luckily, she has perfect hearing in her right ear but this can confuse kids I guess. The test she will be going for is called a BAER test where they sedate her and put electrodes on her head to measure the brainwaves dedicated to hearing (or something like that). Then they will pipe in sounds so they can figure out what kind of problem(s) she has.
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safechner 11:49 AM 06-21-2010
I am deaf myself and I can help. A friend of mine have a daughter who have the same problem as your daughter's. When she was 4 years old and enrolled deaf education to help her learn total communicate and use sign language. Until she was 6 years old, she started to go Oral class to learn speech. I think she is doing fine but she still love to use sign language. Both of her and my daughter went school together when they were toddlers. Also, she wears one hearing aid on her right ear. My daughter is profoundly deaf since birth and I found out before we leave the hospital. I decided to take her hearing test again in Children's Hospital when she was 6 months old. Again, she failed but It doesn't bother me. My husband and I bought two hearing aids for my daughter when she was 7 months old. She HATES it so much so I cannot force her because I wanted her to be happy who she is. She enrolled preschool when she was 2 1/2 years old. She is doing fine until now but she still hates to wear hearing aids (she is a 9 year old).

Maybe it is good idea for you to learn sign language to teach her if she is behind on speech. Don't worry about that because she will fine later on. Have you thought about hearing aid? The government can help to pay your hearing aid for your daughter if you both dont make too much money. We tried to get some help but they denied us twice because of my husband who makes too much money (I dont work at this time). We paid $1,700 for both hearing aids for her.

I would recommend to speak with childrens hospital so you will get all of information.
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fctjc1979 05:11 PM 06-21-2010
We are very lucky in that the area we live in has a program through the school district to work with hearing impaired children even as infants. Once they can establish what types of sounds are not being heard by her left ear, they can begin to work with her. They could have started earlier but my daughter kept screeming through the tests which made it hard for them to get good readings. She hates being held down,

I've talked to the lady who will most likely be the one working with her and she is very nice. And seemed very knowledgeble.
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fctjc1979 05:29 PM 06-21-2010
Does anybody know if this sounds right? http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotion...not_talk.html#
Their information seems thorough but so do several other sites that have different milestones.

Maybe I just need to wait until the hearing test and see if THEY can tell if she's behind. Although, I'm pretty sure all we'll see is the technician that will hook everything up and run the machine.

It's so frustrating trying to come up with good information because nobody seems to agree on anything anymore when it comes to child development.
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fctjc1979 05:46 PM 06-21-2010
I suppose it might be easier to say what she does and then ask people who routinely care for children this age. Oh, and she's 16 months old not 15 like I originally posted (oops).

She babbles pretty much all day with a mixture of sounds.
says "dada" and means my husband most but not all the time
says "mama" but I'm not really sure she means me
says "Aah" for her sister Alex and clearly means Alex
responds when we tell her no (even if she doesn't obey, lol)
follows commands like "wash your hands", "clap" and "arms up/down"

Does anybody know if this is fairly normal for a 16 month old? She doesn't say any other words at all. She just babbles a lot. I've been told by several relatives that she should know more words by now, but they are in no way experts.
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fctjc1979 09:00 AM 06-28-2010
I don't usually bump old threads but her hearing test is tomorrow (yeah, I wrote the wrong date on the first post). I'm hoping that someone that works with her age group can tell me whether I need to be worrying about her speech development.

I found a couple of websites that makes it sound as though she's pretty spot-on with her development but I found a couple of other websites that say she should be saying about 10 words by now. Very frustrating.
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QualiTcare 09:32 AM 06-28-2010
i can give you my opinion, but that's all it is - an opinion. i have a BS in early childhood development, but it was always stressed in school that we are not doctors and can not "diagnose" a child, and it sounds like her speech is more of a medical issue than just a developmental delay since she has trouble hearing.

i do know that the important thing is that she's progressing. it really doesn't matter if she can say X amount of words by the time she is X months old (that's just a guide) - as long as she is doing MORE instead of regressing. 15 months is really young. i had a 2 year old one time that wasn't saying ANYTHING and i was told to wait and see if he showed any progression by the time he was 2.5. Three years is really how old they like children to be before they label them "delayed" in any way. This boy didn't show any improvement by the time he was 2.5 so I called an Early Intervention program in my area and they had an interventionist come to the daycare and observe him. at that time, they determined he needed speech classes and he started those when he was almost three.

my own son wasn't saying as much as i thought he should be at his 2 year old check up. the doctor asked if he could say 50 words that were understandable (to other people - not me) and i wasn't sure that he had 50. she told me the same thing - wait until he's 2.5 and let me know if he's not improving. luckily, his speech picked up. he just didn't say a lot because he had an older sister that never stopped talking and did his talking for him.

my advice would be to just worry about getting her hearing problems fixed and the speech will catch up. she has plenty of time - and unless she starts saying LESS i wouldn't worry.
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safechner 09:33 AM 06-28-2010
Originally Posted by fctjc1979:
I don't usually bump old threads but her hearing test is tomorrow (yeah, I wrote the wrong date on the first post). I'm hoping that someone that works with her age group can tell me whether I need to be worrying about her speech development.

I found a couple of websites that makes it sound as though she's pretty spot-on with her development but I found a couple of other websites that say she should be saying about 10 words by now. Very frustrating.
All kids are different. Some of them are speech development late and some of them are right on track. My husband was speech development late until ages of 2 (he is hearing). My second daughter can speak more than 15 words before she was 1. My husband don't do talkative like my daughter do. We are using ASL at home. I bought signing time dvd for both my daughters. That is how my second daughter learned sign language and speech at the same time. Check it out www.signingtime.com .

Don't worry but she will be fine.
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professionalmom 09:46 AM 06-28-2010
Originally Posted by QualiTcare:
my own son wasn't saying as much as i thought he should be at his 2 year old check up. the doctor asked if he could say 50 words that were understandable (to other people - not me) and i wasn't sure that he had 50. she told me the same thing - wait until he's 2.5 and let me know if he's not improving. luckily, his speech picked up. he just didn't say a lot because he had an older sister that never stopped talking and did his talking for him.
My DD has few true words, also and she'll be 2 next month. We had her hearing checked and it's fine. She has had some ear infections which I think may have affected what SHE is hearing during the infection. However, she is advanced in many areas. She started doing puzzles at 15 months (the first time we introduced them, she jumped on them). She knows her colors and shapes, animals, etc. She just doesn't say them. But she points to the correct thing when asked. She is picking up a few more words, but I have noticed that she sticks her tongue out while talking. So "ball" sounds more like "balllllllll". I'm trying to teach her to keep the tongue in. I hope that makes sense. It's hard to describe how it sounds. Her doctors have basically told me the same thing - wait a little longer. They make it sound like, for some children, it takes time for them to get all the muscles in sync to speak correctly. However, she is much, much more advanced than my DC kids (of comparable age) in many, many areas.
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fctjc1979 10:09 AM 06-28-2010
Thanks for the responses, everyone. It really did make me feel better about where she is. She too is very advanced in pretty much everything. She is one smart little girl. Sometimes scary smart. I think that's why it was actually a bit disconcerting when all those sites kept saying she was behind in speech. It's just hard knowing that a hearing problem might be slowing her down. But I think the more I talk to people, the more I'm realizing that she's not really behind, especially for someone with hearing issues. I did just get a call from the hearing and speech therapist that will be working with her if there are problems they feel need some extra help. When I described what she is doing, this woman was pleasantly surprised. She was looking forward to getting the results and beginning to work with my daughter. Anyway, thanks for the responses. They really helped put my mind at ease. I'm feeling ready to deal with whatever she is going to need to live a happy life with her hearing issues.
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booroo 10:12 AM 06-28-2010
My ds will be 3 in oct and had hearing loss in his left ear... Right now there is no change, but his speech is wonderful, and our per isn't worried.... I will tell you that he did not say anything until he was 20 months, did the basic babble, but no words... When he started it was sentences.... Dint worry about it to much...
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Childminder 01:37 PM 06-28-2010
I think she sounds on track to me. I've had children that are 2 and not saying ten words and kids that are 1 and saying fifty. The Dr will probably confirm that as well. My son was saying words like 'thank you' at 8 mo and my daughter spoke 'Artesion' till she was 2.5 but that was because of a build up of ear wax and it distorted what she heard.
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