We got the kids bundled up and headed out to Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center, for a repeat hearing test. With the wax clear, we wanted to finally get a complete audiogram and confirm that Nolan's hearing levels have returned to their June 2009 levels.This sounds like a good plan, but when the critical player is a two-and-a-half year old boy, the following scenario ensues:
"Nolan, point to the baseball."
Nolan points to the baseball (so far, so good)!
"Nolan, point to the ice cream."
Nolan throws a peg across the room.
"Nolan, point to the popcorn."
Nolan crawls under the table and pretends to take a nap.
Oh, goodness. I tried giving him a couple of raisins to get him back on track, but then he simply wanted to eat more raisins, or crawl on my lap, or do anything but point to flashcards.
We tried to shift over to getting some pure-tone results for his audiogram, and he could have cared less about the lit-up koala in the box. Normally, he loves those puppets. Yesterday afternoon, he wouldn't condition to looking at them at all. He stared at his hands, dropped toys on the floor, and became "noodle boy," where his limbs flailed around and he sank to the floor in a most dramatic way.
We get to come back on January 12 and try this again. Sounds like fun!
We are going to modify a few things on this next try. We are going to do the test at 10:00am rather than in the afternoon, to see if that improves his attention span. We're also going to do the test sans Mommy. The hope is that without my presence, Nolan will focus and listen to the audiologists a bit better. Our ENT really wants a full audiogram, so hopefully we'll be able to get one.
We were able to determine that his speech reception thresholds (SRT) were 45dB for both the right and left ear. This is good for the right ear, because that is only 5dB away from his June 2009 level (within test-to-test variability). So the loss in that ear was probably from the wax and nothing more. The left ear, however, used to have an SRT of 30dB, so this is a 15dB drop. With Nolan's lack of cooperation, we can't tell if it is a "real" drop or not. Without the pure-tone results, we don't really know what is going on with the little guy. His tympanogram also looked good: the right ear had a "Type A" and the left ear shows an open perforation (the hole from the PE tube hasn't sealed up yet).
Wish us luck for the January 12 repeat!
5 comments:
lol! oh mama, I know THOSE appointments. Queen Teen doesn't climb under the table anymore. Instead she folds her arms and sighs in a very dramatic, 14 year old, I AM SO BORED, way.
oh goodness- i can imagine this only too well. i hope next time goes better! sidenote: hopefully these other tactics will work. i'm always amazed at how much more focused monrovia is in booth tests (and sometimes even in therapy) without me!
You've already had a 2.5 year old boy, did you expect anything more?! Haha! I shouldn't laugh because I honestly know how disappointing it is when you have to travel to get things accomplished and then, due to an uncooperative little boy, nothing is accomplished and the trip seems like a complete waste of time. How could you be mad though?? Look how cute that little man is! He looks so grown up.
Better luck in January!!
Oh, I feel your pain.
It gets easier... it really does.
Julie
Oh, my! Can we do anything but laugh at those times? That sounds so much like William! He once decided he was terrified of the booth and started screaming and climbing out of my arms the moment we walked in the door. That was an afternoon appointment, also. He did better the next time in the morning. I think it is so hard when they are little and you can't tell if the "low scores" are a lack of interest/participation or a true lack of hearing. We'll be praying that the test goes better next month!
We take our new baby boy in for his ABR next month, too. Ever since we found out William is deaf, we schedule complete ABRs. It makes me feel better knowing exactly what they can and can't hear.
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