Westley

First of all I thought these pictures where cute. Westley loves to play baseball and absolutely refuses to share it with Jenna. He is definitely all boy. Anyway, the main reason for this post was to update people on his language/hearing problems. As many of you know he failed a hearing test at 12 months and was behind in his communication/language development. Last month a speech pathologist found that he was 3 months behind on all three categories of his language/communication development. (I do not remember what the 3 categories where). Which being 3 months behind is not out of the range of normal development, but is on the brink. This week he had a more thorough hearing evaluation by an audiologist, who found that he currently has moderate hearing loss most likely due to the fluid in his middle ears. The next step is to see an ENT to clear the fluid out of his ears and then retest his hearing. At the same time he will be occasionally evaluated on his communication development to see if he falls further behind.

Based on my own analysis I believe that the fluid has been in his ears for many months, 6+ which why he is having trouble hearing and is delayed in his communication skills. As soon as his middle ears are cleared out (probably needs tubes) he should be able to catch up and have no permanent problems. I have spent a lot of time researching this and going over his development from birth and am quite sure this is the case. As long as we get the fluid out before there is any permanent damage he should be fine. I guess of the next months we will find out if I am right.