"He doesn't have a hearing problem"

When Bradley's speech wasn't developing properly I had a few people suggest that his hearing may be impaired. I said the same thing over and over for a while, "He doesn't have a hearing problem. Bradley can hear the beginning of his favorite television show (Miss Spider and Her Sunny Patch Friends) from across the house."

  

Bradley would hear the show beginning and excitedly run into the room. If I dropped a pan and Bradley would turn in the direction of the loud noise.  I continued to tell myself that there wasn't anything wrong with Bradley's hearing until I had a dream one night.  I had  been praying about how to help Bradley and I had a dream that Bradley had tubes put in his ears and that almost immediately his hearing and speech improved exponentially. As a therapist I don't put too much stock in dreams, but this dream was SO real. I knew I needed to act on it quickly.

After some online research I decided I wanted to take Bradley to Children's ENT of Houston. http://www.childrensenthouston.com/  We made an appointment with Dr. Ronald Vilela and the practice's audiologist.  http://www.childrensenthouston.com/vilela  Dr. Vilela diagnosed Brad with long-standing fluid in his ears. The audiologist tested Bradley's hearing and confirmed fluid was affecting his hearing.  What we hypothesized was that because the fluid appeared to be in his ears for a while, it likely impaired his speech development. I told Dr. Vilela about my dream and asked him if he was a Christian. When he said yes and didn't seem to think my dream was weird, I knew the surgery was right for Bradley.

Bradley could hear, but the quality of the sound was impaired and he was probably hearing a muffled version of speech and sound. Think about what it sounds like when you are underwater or have your index fingers in both of your ears. If someone presents new/novel sound stimuli, you might catch some of it and your brain will try to fill in missing parts. However, if articulation and clarity are compromised when a young child is learning speech, they don't have the learned speech sounds for their brain to fill in the missing parts.

Playing on hay bales at the J.D. Hudgins Ranch at age 3

At age 3 years 2 months, Dr. Vilela with Children's ENT of Houston surgically inserted tubes into both of Bradley's ears to drain the long-standing fluid. Both Texas Children's Hospital and Dr. Vilela did an amazing job trying to help minimize Bradley's hospital anxiety.

   

Bradley prior to surgery for bilateral tube placement at Texas Children's Hospital, Downtown location

After the quick surgery I was walking into recovery to see Bradley and I could him him crying out, "Mommy! Mommy!" Prior to the surgery Bradley called me "Mom" and sometimes "Mop," but I don't think he had ever called me Mommy before. On the way home from the hospital it was obvious that Bradley was hearing differently. It was like he was experiencing a new world and I could see him reacting to sounds he had not heard clearly before. I hoped that Bradley would magically begin speaking with perfect speech, but it didn't exactly turn out like my dream. Bradley's speech slowly improved in time thanks to guidance and assistance from Mr. Clint, his speech therapist.  I wish we would have had Bradley's hearing checked sooner and perhaps had the surgery earlier in his life. My husband and I both agreed that we would be more proactive with our second son, Max, and after Max had several ear infections and standing fluid we had Max's ear tubes surgically inserted at age 10 months.

                           

 Max preparing for ear tube placement with Dr. Vilela at Texas Children's West Campus