Hear and now
About a month ago, I received a call from the nurse at Samuel’s school. Samuel wasn’t ill, but he had failed his hearing screening. I instantly felt guilty for all the times I made him turn down the TV, radio, computer, etc.
His second screening yielded similar results, as did the hearing test administered by his regular doctor. So today Samuel was seen by a specialist and a licensed audiologist. After about an hour of tests inside a sound proof booth, Samuel’s results were inconsistent and inconclusive.
The audiologist explained to me that kids Samuel’s age typically respond to some sort of hearing loss in one of two ways—they either play it up and emphasize the problem to make sure you know about it, or they pretend there isn’t a problem (when there really is) because they don’t want anyone to know about it. We’re not sure which of these scenarios fits Samuel. All we know is that a sound he claims to hear in one instance, he can’t hear in the next. Same sound, same volume, different response.
Part of the explanation may be Samuel being difficult, being an 11-year-old boy, etc. However, when I think about my responses at the eye doctor, I can kind of relate. Which one is clearer? A or B? 1 or 2? I usually have no idea. They look the same. A….no, 2.
Our next stop is the local children’s hospital where they can administer a more objective test and really figure out what’s going on. That’s our best bet of finding out whether there is really a problem and if something that can be done to help Samuel hear better.
What I find the most upsetting about all of this is that no one caught this before. While the results are inconsistent, all the nurses, doctors, and specialists have reason to believe there is some loss of hearing. Why hasn’t anyone caught this before in a hearing screening at school or the well-child exam he had in November? I wish this was a rare occurrence with kids in foster care, but I know it’s not unusual at all for things like this to be overlooked.
2 comments
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We had a 5 yr old boy (cutest kiddo you have ever seen!) that was inconsistant on his hearing tests. He was moved to us from another foster home and his initial exam under them showed a slight hearing issue. He was tested again at our doctor’s and they said he tested normal. A couple of months later the school said he had a problem when they did the normal screening. He was reunited with his mom right after that was done and we were unable to pursue what was going on. Whether it was cold’s or allergies or hearing loss we don’t know, but we ran into something similar.
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As an adult who just had a turn sitting in the sound-proof booth for an hour, I can assure you that your analogy to eye examinations is spot on. I can easily see how everyone missed it, too, because Samuel probably has all kinds of coping mechanisms in place. You already are so good at keeping logs, etc., it might be worth trying to keep notes about when his hearing seems to be more “off” — what are the circumstances? Background noise, allergies, etc.? May not get you anywhere, but then again, it might give just enough information to pinpoint something more to check and to identify little things that will help his acuity and ability to pick up information at school and in other settings.