failed audiology

Sweets failed her audiology this morning.

The test looks like this: We sit in a booth, she on my lap as though I was a chair. The audiologist watches through a window. He plays sounds - music, tones, or white noise - from speakers coming from the front two corners of the room. If Sweets hears the sound, she would presumably look in the direction it came from. If she looks to the correct corner, a box in that corner lights up and shows her a toy (such as a teddy bear or monkey).

She had her first one at 12 months, which she passed just fine, and then one at 20 months that she passed but didn't respond to all the sounds (music better than tones). And now this time she did not respond to many of the sounds unless they were loud, and the ones she did notice she couldn't localize. It could be that she just wasn't very interested in the noises and didn't care to look for them I guess. She fussed too much to put anything in her ears to test them individually, which she has never allowed yet. The audiologist did seem a little concerned today

The audiologist wanted me to take her right to the ped to have her ears looked at to see if she has an ear infection or fluid that could be affecting the test. So we went straight there and they looked, but said that she doesn't have anything. Just a "slightly thickened" ear drum on the left side, which can indicate a prior infection, but could also be normal. Her right side was totally in the clear.

So we will go back to the audiologist in a month and just re-test her. I'm not sure what else we can do on a kid this age. I do feel like she can hear me, and she definitely enjoys music. But this might explain some of her speech delay issues, if it turns out she has some hearing difficulties.