Say What?

Okay, it's a little late for our family Christmas photo, but I've been too busy to post anything for awhile.

At Sammy's 18 month checkup, the pediatrician said he wanted to get Sammy in for a speech evaluation and possibly for some speech therapy as his verbal skills are behind schedule. Not surprisingly, he did not pass his hearing test again at his 18 month checkup (that makes 4 "failed" hearing tests). Unfortunately, an appointment with an ENT took longer to get, so he had his speech evaluation before he could get his ears checked out by a specialist. The speech evaluator said although Sammy is behind schedule in talking or babbling, he shows absolutely no sign of learning impairment and seemed to understand her and followed multi-step directions very well. She said determining and fixing the hearing problems would likely solve the problem and he might just need a limited amount of speech therapy to get him back up to speed once his hearing is normal.

There is always the possibility that Sammy could have permanent partial hearing loss (inherited from his father) and we're not afraid of dealing with whatever the result is. My belief is that it is probably just fluid in his ears and tubes might clear that up. If it is permanent, we all get to embark on an exciting adventure of learning more sign language. Johnny is always enthusiastic to teach Sammy new signs, which has resulted in our using some non-traditional signs because Johnny ends up teaching Sammy a made up sign. At least we understand each other. ;)

Prayers are always appreciated. We know that God's grace is sufficient and that He will provide for all of our needs. No one is worried, we're just doing our best to address things as early as possible. The ENT appoinment is scheduled for this Tuesday morning.

Just out of curiosity ... if you have babies ... do you notice them staring at your mouth a lot when you talk (reading lips)? Sammy watches my mouth a lot and I was wondering if he's just trying to figure out how I'm forming the sounds, or if he can't clearly hear what I'm saying.