Re: New Member - 5 yr old son just diagnosed with Hearing Loss

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/4/2006 9:18:54 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

jay_beth1998@... writes:

Does anyone have a child that has hearing loss that was diagnosed

around this age?

Beth,

Welcome to the group. I know you'll get plenty of support and feedback here!

Our son was diagnosed at about age 7½. By that time he had developed his lip

reading skills so well that those skills (and a really bad ENT) helped hide

the extent of his hearing loss for another year. Ian's loss started as

mild/moderate cookie bite loss in the right ear and very mild in the right -- a

unilateral loss. His is a deteriorating condition and it's now a moderate loss

in both with his audiograms flat across at about 50 dbs.

I think that the new born screening had not yet started when Ian was born.

But even so, he'd probably have passed. We think he was hearing until around

4-years-old. Ian passed the doctor office and school hearing tests by

" cheating. " The nurse would look up when she played a tone, so he'd raise his

right

hand. He absolutely refused to alternate hands to indicate which ear had heard

the tones, so she just wrote that off as him being stubborn. In the doctor's

office, there was a high pitched click when a tone was played, and Ian would

respond to that ... we told them about it and they had the machine fixed.

Back then, Ian had better hearing in the high tones, so he heard the click, but

not the tone. (sigh)

He never needed speech services and his loss did not become apparent until

be started struggling to keep in his 2nd grade classroom. He'd always been a

very shy child, and now, graced with 20/20 hindsight, I realize that I missed

all sorts of flags that could have alerted us to a hearing loss, if I'd only

known what they were. We don't have any D/HOH people in our close family

except for grandparents getting their first sets of aids at age 80 -- several

years after Ian got his!

I'm sure you have a tons of questions -- I know I did. Ask them as they come

to you. There are no stupid or silly questions, and we don't mind answering.

Welcome!

Jill

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/4/2006 9:18:54 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

jay_beth1998@... writes:

Does anyone have a child that has hearing loss that was diagnosed

around this age?

Beth,

Welcome to the group. I know you'll get plenty of support and feedback here!

Our son was diagnosed at about age 7½. By that time he had developed his lip

reading skills so well that those skills (and a really bad ENT) helped hide

the extent of his hearing loss for another year. Ian's loss started as

mild/moderate cookie bite loss in the right ear and very mild in the right -- a

unilateral loss. His is a deteriorating condition and it's now a moderate loss

in both with his audiograms flat across at about 50 dbs.

I think that the new born screening had not yet started when Ian was born.

But even so, he'd probably have passed. We think he was hearing until around

4-years-old. Ian passed the doctor office and school hearing tests by

" cheating. " The nurse would look up when she played a tone, so he'd raise his

right

hand. He absolutely refused to alternate hands to indicate which ear had heard

the tones, so she just wrote that off as him being stubborn. In the doctor's

office, there was a high pitched click when a tone was played, and Ian would

respond to that ... we told them about it and they had the machine fixed.

Back then, Ian had better hearing in the high tones, so he heard the click, but

not the tone. (sigh)

He never needed speech services and his loss did not become apparent until

be started struggling to keep in his 2nd grade classroom. He'd always been a

very shy child, and now, graced with 20/20 hindsight, I realize that I missed

all sorts of flags that could have alerted us to a hearing loss, if I'd only

known what they were. We don't have any D/HOH people in our close family

except for grandparents getting their first sets of aids at age 80 -- several

years after Ian got his!

I'm sure you have a tons of questions -- I know I did. Ask them as they come

to you. There are no stupid or silly questions, and we don't mind answering.

Welcome!

Jill

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/4/2006 9:18:54 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

jay_beth1998@... writes:

Does anyone have a child that has hearing loss that was diagnosed

around this age?

Beth,

Welcome to the group. I know you'll get plenty of support and feedback here!

Our son was diagnosed at about age 7½. By that time he had developed his lip

reading skills so well that those skills (and a really bad ENT) helped hide

the extent of his hearing loss for another year. Ian's loss started as

mild/moderate cookie bite loss in the right ear and very mild in the right -- a

unilateral loss. His is a deteriorating condition and it's now a moderate loss

in both with his audiograms flat across at about 50 dbs.

I think that the new born screening had not yet started when Ian was born.

But even so, he'd probably have passed. We think he was hearing until around

4-years-old. Ian passed the doctor office and school hearing tests by

" cheating. " The nurse would look up when she played a tone, so he'd raise his

right

hand. He absolutely refused to alternate hands to indicate which ear had heard

the tones, so she just wrote that off as him being stubborn. In the doctor's

office, there was a high pitched click when a tone was played, and Ian would

respond to that ... we told them about it and they had the machine fixed.

Back then, Ian had better hearing in the high tones, so he heard the click, but

not the tone. (sigh)

He never needed speech services and his loss did not become apparent until

be started struggling to keep in his 2nd grade classroom. He'd always been a

very shy child, and now, graced with 20/20 hindsight, I realize that I missed

all sorts of flags that could have alerted us to a hearing loss, if I'd only

known what they were. We don't have any D/HOH people in our close family

except for grandparents getting their first sets of aids at age 80 -- several

years after Ian got his!

I'm sure you have a tons of questions -- I know I did. Ask them as they come

to you. There are no stupid or silly questions, and we don't mind answering.

Welcome!

Jill

[Guest guest]

" Beth K. " wrote: <<Does anyone have a child that has

hearing loss that was diagnosed

around this age?>>

Hi, Beth.

My son Emmett was diagnosed at 2.5, not the same age but he passed his

newborn screening. When he was first diagnosed, he was found to have a profound

loss in his right ear and his left ear had typical (10 to 15db) hearing. His

left ear started to lose hearing about 1.5 years ago (he's 4 now). He's at 25 to

30db across the board and wears and aid on his left ear. His right ear is not

aided because it's felt there would be no benefit.

We did some testing and discovered he has scar tissue on his cochlea resulting

from an infection when he was weeks old. We believe he lost the hearing in that

ear very early and has learned to compensate quite well, which is why we didn't

detect anything until post-ear tube surgery hearing tests were performed.

We also have a daughter, Emma, who is 6. She has typical hearing as do both my

husband and myself.

We've found, much to everyone's pleasant surprise, that Emmett gets a lot of

benefit from the hearing aid even though his loss is mild in that ear. He's an

excellent lip reader, something that he just naturally picked up. He's also a

great self-advocate, and an all-around fun guy. He never stops talking. He's

sitting nexting to me asking what I'm typing right now so I guess it's time to

end this!

Welcome to the group,

Johanna

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[Guest guest]

My son wasnt diagnosed until he was 9 years old! Hello there, my name is Keisha

and my son is 10 years old with a unilateral loss in his left ear. Its greats to

hear from you and WELCOME!

Keisha

---------------------------------

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[Guest guest]

My son wasnt diagnosed until he was 9 years old! Hello there, my name is Keisha

and my son is 10 years old with a unilateral loss in his left ear. Its greats to

hear from you and WELCOME!

Keisha

---------------------------------

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

[Guest guest]

My son wasnt diagnosed until he was 9 years old! Hello there, my name is Keisha

and my son is 10 years old with a unilateral loss in his left ear. Its greats to

hear from you and WELCOME!

Keisha

---------------------------------

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

[Guest guest]

Beth,

My daughter Hannah was officially diagnosed at 5, though we suspected

she had some loss before then. She has bilateral mild-moderate mixed

hearing loss, mostly high frequency, and wears digital aids on both

ears. She did not have a newborn screening.

She did have some delay with language until she got her first ear tubes

at around 18 months, then it really took off, so I hoped that was the

whole issue. It was a shock when it turned out that there was permanent

hearing loss even with tubes in place. Luckily, it has been very stable

since her initial diagnosis, so I'm crossing my fingers it stays that

way.

She's a great kid, and hears pretty well with the aids. She has been

taking piano lessons for several years, also loves gymnastics, dance,

music, bike riding - in short a pretty normal 9-year-old. She's doing

very well in school too, and loves reading and writing.

-

--- " Beth K. " wrote:

> Hi everyone. I just wanted to introduce myself.

>

> My son had his 5 yr check up a month ago. He failed his hearing

> test in his right ear. The doc said that there was probably

> pressure on his ear and put him on an antihistamine for 2 weeks and

> told me to come back then to retest.

>

> One of my best friends is an Audiologist so I took him the next day

> to her office and she did all the test and said he has severe

> hearing loss in his right hear in the mid to high frequencies. I

> took him to another Audiologist last week to get a second opinion

> and she came up with the same results.

>

> We have an appt in weeks with the ENT and then go from there.

>

> Both Audiologist say he needs hearing aids. Just curious as to what

> others here who have only bilateral hearing loss in the mid to high

> frequencies wear a hearing aid.

>

> He had a hearing test at birth and passed it, and had one at his 4

> yr check up and passed it. My gut instinct tells me he lost it this

> year, but both Audiologist say you can't trust the hearing test from

> pediatricians offices, but I can't imagine him passing 2 tests if he

> really had it from birth.

>

> I guess we will see what the ENT says.

>

> Does anyone have a child that has hearing loss that was diagnosed

> around this age?

>

> Thanks everyone!

> Beth

>

>

>

>

>

>

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Hi Beth, I'm from GA and my daughter was diagnosed just before she

turned 4 years. She has a bilat moderately severe loss, got hearing aids and

did a year of AV Therapy. We are 10 years out and she's 14, always been

mainstreamed and is the honor student of the family. Her language was pathetic,

her behavior was off the chart horrible at the time of diagnosis. Born before

newborn hearing screening. We had raised all sorts of red flags with out ped

but he poo-poo'ed all our concerns. She LOVED her hearing aids, and started

wanting her hair in a pony tail at all times so everyone could see her aids.

She was diagnosed the year after Whitestone was Miss America, so she

was Maggie's hero. Then when she noticed only had one hearing aid, she

saved her money (all in change) - put it in a pretty envelope that a wedding

invitation had come in, and had it all ready to give to so she could be

like her and have two hearing aids. We thought it was so cute, but about 6

months later she actually did get to meet and gave her to envelope! At

school, we used to do a little inservice to the kids in the class and take her

aids out and let them listen through the stethscope. I think we quit in about

2nd or 3rd grade. She goes to a private school, so she has been with the same

kids since 5K.

At about 7 years old she wrote a speech (doing some advocacy to get GA to do

newborn screening) and we learned a lot of things. She said that she didn't

know she couldn't hear and that she was mad all the time. She didn't realize her

oldest sister was her sister (she was in college and came home sporadically).

She also thought horses not cows gave milk. And she wished she had always had

her hearing aids. Welcome to our little corner of the internet!

[Guest guest]

Thanks

It's been great reading everyones experience and all the support am

I getting on my first day here!

We are in Georgia too, in the Columbus area.

That is very sweet about your daughter.

What is AV Therapy?

Thanks for sharing.

Beth

>

>

> Hi Beth, I'm from GA and my daughter was diagnosed just

before she turned 4 years. She has a bilat moderately severe

loss, got hearing aids and did a year of AV Therapy. We are 10

years out and she's 14, always been mainstreamed and is the honor

student of the family. Her language was pathetic, her behavior was

off the chart horrible at the time of diagnosis. Born before newborn

hearing screening. We had raised all sorts of red flags with out

ped but he poo-poo'ed all our concerns. She LOVED her hearing

aids, and started wanting her hair in a pony tail at all times so

everyone could see her aids. She was diagnosed the year after

Whitestone was Miss America, so she was Maggie's hero.

Then when she noticed only had one hearing aid, she saved

her money (all in change) - put it in a pretty envelope that a

wedding invitation had come in, and had it all ready to give to

so she could be like her and have two hearing aids. We

thought it was so cute, but about 6 months later she actually did

get to meet and gave her to envelope! At school, we used to

do a little inservice to the kids in the class and take her aids out

and let them listen through the stethscope. I think we quit in

about 2nd or 3rd grade. She goes to a private school, so she has

been with the same kids since 5K.

> At about 7 years old she wrote a speech (doing some advocacy to

get GA to do newborn screening) and we learned a lot of things. She

said that she didn't know she couldn't hear and that she was mad all

the time. She didn't realize her oldest sister was her sister (she

was in college and came home sporadically). She also thought horses

not cows gave milk. And she wished she had always had her hearing

aids. Welcome to our little corner of the internet!

>