How Ear Tubes Improved Our Child’s Speech
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Ear Tubes: One Year Later
This is a few weeks overdue, but I’ve been meaning to give you guys an update on Arthur’s ear tubes! Last year, I shared our experience getting them put in and you all have been so supportive and excited by all of Arthur’s speech development! Go and check out my original post for details, but in a nutshell, he had fluid in both ears and his speech was delayed as a result. He was given ear tubes to allow the fluid to drain, and once he could hear… his speech has improved by leaps and bounds.
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I’m sure I was reading into it a bit, but it really seemed like he started talking more the minute those tubes went in. Without tubes… living life as if hearing under water. With tubes… SOUND! Once we knew that he could hear, he had a full speech and language assessment. We are lucky and have a public preschool in town that services children with varying developmental and intellectual delays. Based on Arthur’s speech, he was admitted for full-time preschool to get more extensive early intervention. (Note: three of our other kids received speech services there but none of them qualified for full-time so they would simply go for 30-minutes a few times a week.) We’re really fortunate to have this preschool as it’s meant Arthur is getting all his speech service courtesy of the state!
He has an IEP (Individualized Education Program) which outlines his speech goals for the year. His are mostly articulation as a result of not being able to hear. Connecting certain sounds is hard for him because his muscles never learned to do them as an infant. And there are other individual sounds that he’s working on just the way his siblings had to. If you’ve never had speech services, there is an age at which each sound should be mastered so, at the age of 3.5, it’s not expected that he can say EVERY sound, but there are many that he needs to work on.
Every couple of months we go back to the ENT and have a hearing test. Arthur and I sit in a sound booth and the audiologist goes through a basic hearing assessment with Arthur. He listens for sounds in headphones and repeats words she says to him. When he was younger, there was a way to evaluate his hearing using televisions mounted on either side of the sound booth and asking him to point to simple body parts like his nose or his ears. We also meet with the doctor who looks to see whether Arthur’s tubes are still in place. Eventually his body will naturally shed the tubes, but so far they’re still in place. Tubes typically last 12-18 months for kids his age so we’ll see what the doctor says whenever they fall out.
This was Arthur’s first year of school so we didn’t want to overwhelm him, but next year, he’ll attend our neighborhood preschool in the mornings in order to have a bit more exposure to typically functioning peers (that’s the term they use in the school system). If we go in for his annual review and they still think he’d be best served by attending his current preschool, he’ll go there in the afternoon.
Other things? He gets speech ‘homework’ most days so we are meant to help him practice certain sounds, play games that stimulate those sounds or just to generally explore language a bit. An example might be a series of flash cards with the “ck” sound at the end of the word: duck, luck, rock, sock… Then we might get some cards with the “K” sounds at the beginning of the word. He’s practicing making each sound at not only the beginning of the word, but also the middle and the end… each is different for his little mouth. It’s also important for him to produce those sounds during regular speaking and not just when we’re prompting him.
One year after tubes, there’s NO question that he has made HUGE improvements with his speech! He speaks in full sentences and is comfortable asking question and sharing his thoughts. I’d say that most people can understand most of what he has to say which is an important distinction in the speech/ language world. As parents, we can usually understand him most of the time but often a gauge for speech services is how much a stranger can understand him. We still have a ways to go, but having daily targeted speech services has made a world of difference. I’m hopeful that in another year or so, he will be close to where he should be for his age which is amazing given how far behind he was just last year!
If your child hasn’t met speech milestones, call your state’s early intervention services. Ours came out to assess Arthur for free and really helped to get the ball rolling. Arthur was happy as a clam but just… not speaking. Along with early speech services, we had a series of routine hearing checks that confirmed the presence of his ongoing fluid build up… something we were unaware of because it never presented as an ear infection. Once the fluid was released… he could hear… and could start working on better articulation. Yay, speech!
Hurray! I can definitely tell The improvement in the videos you share of HIM–same happy kid and now we all Know just what he’s Thinking ABOUT–so I’m sure it’s even more pronounced at home. My son had a speech Delay THAT required weekly speech sessions and we knew he was making an improvement when siri misunderstood him like she misunderstands everyone else. ?
Haha! Yes! So true! Thanks so much for the laugh!
My sons story mirrors arthur’s almost exactly. My son is 32 years old now and happily HASN’T had a moments trouble since he was four. The only thing i muse about is that it seems that nothing neW has HAPPENEDin the field in 30 years! Maybe its just a case of if the process isnt broke..dont fix it!
That’s so interesting! I know the tubes they use now stay in place a little longer and are a slightly different shape but yes! Sounds like a nuance and basically the system worked!
Keep up the good work, ArthuR!
Thank you!! I’ll tell him! 🙂 xx
My husband is an ENT doctor. You are so right — tubes make such a difference, and so quickly! So glad that you are receiving great care and appropriate services from your school district. Our son had early intervention for speech also and the earlier one starts, the easier it is for the child to improve. Arthur is adorable (as are your other 4 children)!
Thank you! And yes! Those little muscles have longer to get back into working shape when they start young! xx
Good for Arthur!!! I can tell in the videos also. Such a sweet boy. Yay Smith family!!!
Thanks so much! We’re so happy with his progress!
He is such a cuTie! Kaylyn had tubes becau of constant ear infections i never knr when they came out;) i use ‘Lips’ with a lot of my kiddis for phonemic awareness and see huge differences and wish we had more SLP services as i believe it is the most important foundation for everything ! Miss you!;)
Yes! He gets SL every day which is a BIG help… still not quite automatic with lots of sounds but he can make them… those physical cues are super helpful. Miss you tooooooo! xx
I just stumble across your post. My son has a speech delay and just got ear tubes. How was his tympannogram before ear tubes. We are trying to decide if he needs the special preschool or not.
Hi Maria! I’m not sure what that is, but he qualified for speech and language services through the state as a result of his speech assessment! We have a public preschool that works with children with early IEPs so… I would check with your state!
Hello , thank you so much for providing your son improvement. my 1.5 yr old son just got his tubes in his ears last week . so far he is still not saying much but I have notice today, he is starting to hum more. I worry myself so much because you expect your kid to start speaking right away but I know I have to have patience.
It’s amazing how resilient their little brains are at this age! They catch up so fast!
My son has a speech delay and is in a preschool to help him. My question is if your doctor at normal check ups ever noticed fluid on the ears or if the check ups were normal? We have had hearing tests done and he has never had any ear issues but im wondering if its possible that an ear issues is being missed and causing our speech issues. Ive heard an ent can do a more extensive Exam and im wondering if i need to push that or not. Id appeciate your thoughts. Thank you!
Hi! Our doctor would occasionally see clear fluid but because it was never infected, it was assumed to be something that happens periodically and would clear up. Our son definitely had hearing issues as a result of the fluid but that took a dedicated hearing test at an ENTs office to really detect.
This sounds EXACTLY like my grandson. My daughter, who is a doctor, kept asking for them to further check his ears because he had never had an ear infection or been on antibiotics. Sure enough, he had fluid built up, and once he got his tubes, it’s as if the world opened up for him! He is now saying sentences, and his vocabulary has flourished. I’m so glad that she stood her ground with her mommy instincts, because tubes literally changed his life!
OH that’s amazing!! SO good to hear! xx
Hi,
My son was diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech. He is 3 and has zero words. We recently went to an audiologist and found out he has fluid in his ears with no ear drum movement and some hearing loss due to this. We have his surgery scheduled for January. I am curious to know if your son sounded like my son does now. Also, how is your sons speech now? I am praying the tubes in my sons ears will help him to progress in speech. Hope to hear from you.
-Sky
I’m sure it will make a HUGE difference. My son was quite chatty so it was more about is articulation than the language itself but that improved a great deal once he could actually hear again!