Hearing & Speech

Nora just finished up her speech therapy last week. She didn’t graduate out of the need for it, but given her age (preschooler), her therapy is through the school district and therefore is only provided during the school year. It’s kind of a bummer, but her speech pathologist said that she didn’t think it would be a big deal for her to take a break over the summer (as opposed to us paying out of pocket for private therapy sessions). The plan will be for her to start back up in the fall in kindergarten.

In the meantime, our focus has shifted to Vivienne.

Back at the beginning of May, I actually had a conversation with Nora’s speech therapist about Vivienne. I asked if I should consider getting her evaluated, talked to her about her lack of words. But Nora was in much the same position at the same age, and when we had her evaluated by early intervention, she did not qualify for services at that time. So I was less worried with Vivienne—figured late speech is just “normal” for our babies for whatever reason, and that she would catch up just as Nora did. Nora’s speech therapist was on the fence about it, but told me that it was probably fine to give her some more time.

Fast-forward a week, and Vivienne was being particularly challenging while Nora was receiving her speech services. Nora and her speech pathologist were in the living room and Vivienne and I were in the kitchen and playroom. She was repeatedly using her “most annoying sound in the world” to try to communicate with me and I was repeatedly guessing what it was that she wanted. Unbeknownst to me, the speech path was apparently listening because before she left that day, she said to me, “I couldn’t help but overhear; it’s clear Vivienne is very frustrated with her lack of ability to communicate. And you, too. You should probably call for that evaluation.”

A few weeks later, Vivienne was evaluated and I’ll admit that I was a little surprised when, at the end, they told me that she was found to have a severe delay and qualified for speech services. I mean, I was surprised but not surprised. Although I obviously suspected she may need help—that’s the reason we called to have her evaluated, after all—there was still part of me that assumed she was probably fine. That assumed it would turn out like Nora. So it felt kind of like a punch in the gut when they said it. I found myself holding back tears while they explained her deficiencies, and then actually cried a little once I was alone again and on my way back to work.

I know it’s not that big of a deal. But for some reason, it just felt really overwhelming, having Nora already in speech therapy and then getting the news that Vivienne needed it as well. For a brief period, I started questioning what it is that I did (or didn’t do) to cause these challenges for both of our girls.

Perhaps even more alarming was that the evaluators expressed concern over Vivienne’s hearing. During the evaluation, our mail lady came up on our porch and dropped a package by the door. I had the front door open, so it was only the storm door. I noticed, but didn’t think much of it at the time. We continued on with the evaluation. At the end, however, the evaluator pointed out these moments. She said that as the package was dropped off, everyone in the room (including Nora) lifted their heads to look to see what the noise was—except Vivienne. She had a few other examples of how Vivienne seemed to need visual cues instead of verbal ones during the evaluation. They suggested that we take Vivienne to an audiologist to get a hearing test done, and to also revisit the ENT about her recurrent ear infections/fluid in the ears.

Back before her speech even became a real concern, we went to the ENT in late March or early April to talk about Vivienne’s ear infections. She’d had them consecutively in January, February, and March, so our pediatrician recommended an ENT visit. At that appointment, the doctor’s suggestion was to wait it out. He said we were going into spring/summer, might as well see if she could make it through without tubes. But now, given the concern over her hearing, we needed to visit again.

So I made a dual appointment for her on June 9th. We saw the audiologist first for the hearing test, and then saw the ENT to discuss the results and have her (it was a different ENT this time) check out Vivienne’s ears. The hearing test went pretty smoothly, but afterward the audiologist told us that it appeared that Vivienne definitely had some hearing loss. She said that the results were indicative of an issue with the middle ear—which is the part affected when there is fluid in there, which is associated with ear infections. This was hard for me, too, finding out that our poor baby cannot hear as well as she should.

We saw the ENT and she checked Vivienne’s ears. We were surprised to learn that Vivienne was sporting an ear infection, but not surprised about the presence of fluid in both ears. Given that this was now yet ANOTHER ear infection—and in June, no less—and that the hearing test results were not awesome, the ENT recommended the insertion of tubes in Vivienne’s ears. At that point, it was a no-brainer for Michael and me as well.

After an excessive amount of stubborn ear infections, Nora had tubes put in at 17 months, and has never had another ear infection since. The progression and circumstances were kind of different between the two girls, but the end result was to be the same—tubes.

The ENT got us on her schedule for June 22 (fast! so nice), so last week, Michael and I woke up early and took Vivienne to the surgery center for the tubes. We had been through this before, so it was slightly less unnerving this time, simply because we knew what to expect. Just as it did with Nora, the procedure went really smoothly, and “recovery” was a piece of cake. When they called us back to see her in recovery, she was still sleeping soundly. Sweet muffin. She awoke after 10 minutes or so, she was a little fussy, but then she took her Cheerios and we were home by 9:00 a.m. A few hours later, I had both Nora and Vivienne out on a playground with my dad. It was like nothing had even happened to Vivienne… just like Nora had handled it as well.

Now, Viv will start her speech therapy tomorrow. I’m interested to see how it helps her, to see how she progresses in her speech/language development after both the tubes and the therapy. The pathologist who evaluated her told us of children she worked with who qualified for services, got ear tubes inserted, and then graduated out of the speech therapy after only a few months. I’m hoping for a similar result for our girl.

Vivienne is wicked smart and funny and sweet. I don’t often like to rush milestones. I believe in everything happening at their own paces. But I can’t wait to hear more of Vivi’s voice.

I can’t wait to hear what she has to say.