On Friday we had a flurry of appointments for August. First, an evaluator from Early Intervention came and did a speech evaluation. August was not his best. He ignored pretty much everyone, threw toys on the floor without playing with them, wouldn’t raise his arms to be picked up, and refused to make eye contact with the evaluator. This, added to his actual delays with things like waving “Bye bye” pretty much made him look like a human disaster area. Because I know everyone from when they worked with Charlie, they told me on the way out that they’d definitely be recommending him for speech therapy. The evaluator also pointed out a bunch of other little issues, but I think that was more a personality thing than an actual disability thing. Or I’m in total denial. One or the other.

From there, we raced to a nearby town for an evaluation by an audiologist. This time, the audiologist is an old sorority sister, so we gabbed for a bit about what was going on, what I was seeing, what I was thinking, etc. She pointed out how friendly August looked and acted, and then we went in for the actual test. The good news is that his “hearing” is fine. As far as I can tell, this means that his ear drum and bones are all vibrating appropriately. The bad news is that both ears are full of fluid. Since fluid can come and go without a parent knowing, this probably explains the pattern of good/bad that we’ve been seeing with August. When his ears are full of fluid, he’s not responding. When they’re not, he does a lot better.

I was advised to take him to an ENT who can tell us what the next step is–I suspect ear tubes since Charlie had ear tubes because of chronic fluid build-up.

The first available appointment is at the end of the month. Next moth that is. Meanwhile, I guess my kid just has to wander around listening to the world under water. I’m sure that’s going to be great for his speech and overall development. Sigh.