Hearing check

We had an appointment at the ENT hospital today. I am not particularly concerned about Charlotte's hearing but hey, I'll see anyone who will see me! No, seriously, it came about because of the visit to the Developmental Ped when she was 6 months old. He asked how I felt about her. I said I probably would not yet be worried about anything if she didn't have nystagmus. I then said that if I did have a concern, it would probably be about her hearing first because she doesn't turn towards the source of a sound.

So he referred us, it took a while but it wasn't urgent and I wasn't worried. She didn't pass with flying colours. I shouldn't be surprised and they do think that her underlying hearing is probably normal. They want to see her again in a few months time.

Firstly, she has some congestion in her middle ear. No kidding. The two little girls are the biggest snot-factories that I have ever seen. If snot was worth money, I'd be rich!

Secondly, she didn't do great at working towards looking for the source of a sound. Well, the test wasn't optimal for her. The room was brightly lit with flourescent lights and the "reward" was brightly lit boxes of animal puppets dancing. She probably couldn't see a thing inside them. They did turn off the room lights in the end and she liked the lights on the boxes but they were very harsh. They replicated the test in another room with the doctor and an assistant but she still didn't do great. She much preferred the spinning silver disk to turning to look at the doctor.

It's funny, they didn't have anything like the right equipment to interest a visually impaired child. How do they deal with deaf-blind kids?