For years, people have been telling me that Isaac has a slight speech impediment. People like my sister (who is a speech therapist with a master's degree), my dad, Todd, my s-i-l, Todd, my friend, Todd, my sister, Todd, etc.
And for years, I have denied it and told them that I don't hear it. I think he speaks just fine and we're not paying for any more therapies in this house thank you very much!
It has been quite a source of contention between my husband and myself.
At Christmas, my sister mentioned it again, and again, I ignored her and Todd.
At the beach she got a little more insistent and I caught her in the corner working with Isaac on his speech and rewarding him with skittles. They worked on his "sh and ch" sounds.
We got home from the beach and I had my second post-op ear surgery appointment. The one where they would tell me if the surgery was successful? The one where they would tell me if I would need a second surgery or not? The one with the highly extensive hearing test......
I bombed the crizzap out of it.
The surgery did help with some of the issues but I learned that I have severe high frequency hearing loss. Severe.
So I asked the audiologist:
"What kinds of sounds am I missing?"
Her response:
"You're catching most of the vowel sounds and doing some good lip reading and compensation, but you're missing a lot of consonant sounds. Sounds like ch, sh, s, f, etc."
"Well shit."
Yes, I actually said that out loud to her.
Although, I apparently don't hear "sh" sounds well, so I could have said "oh hit."
I mean we'll never really know now, will we?
Sorry Isaac!
I literally DID NOT hear it.
We'll get an evaluation soon.
And what did the Duke Otolaryngologist say about all this?
Well first he said I had to be fitted for an "assistive hearing device."
Just Lovely.
And then I got a nice little lecture on "when you know you have a history of ear trauma and hearing loss, maybe you shouldn't be so stubborn in the future."
Oh just shut up and give me my hearing aid, Doc.
And to my Isaac?
So so so so sorry.
Epic Fail on my part.
Again.
I'll pay for your speech therapy and any other therapies you will need one day on account of me. I'm sure they will be numerous......
Your local school district should provide help for him for free.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I heard his speech challenges, I knew others were already telling you they heard them so I chose not to do "the mother in law thing" (THIS time!!). However, it never ever occurred to me your hearing issues might be the reason you didn't hear them. I never mentioned it to Todd for reasons of mother/son communication....ha ha....see even Isaac's dad/grandma weren't communicating!! However, with the school evaluating and providing any needed help for FREE, Isaac will make great leaps and bounds and you'll just have to save the therapy money for some other issue one of the kids will have over the years. Been there, felt that, worried about that, etc. As for your own assistive device....you are already walking the world of new sounds to you! LOVE YOU!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteScotia went to speech therapy at school all last year. The speech pathologist was wonderful. Fixed all her errors in a year. Easy peasy!
ReplyDeleteYeah - it's not a major issue so I think it shouldn't take long to fix. Need to call and have him evaluated. :)
DeleteOh hit you a funny bit. <-- I hope you get the joke or I'll feel really dumb. :) Enjoy hearing ALL the sounds around you. And tell Todd I understand, I'm also married to a stubborn "if I can't see see, hear, (insert other sense here) it, it doesn't exist/isn't a problem" person.
ReplyDeleteNow that was funny, Andrea! And I got it! And I should be offended but I'm not. ;) You're right. Todd may not find the situation as humorous as I do........since he's been arguing with me about it forever........
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