I was at a homeschooling conference this weekend and took a class on helping teach children with speech, visual, audio issues. It was awesome, she kept talking about how in those first few years if they have ear infections and/or sinus infections how it can affect them their speech and how they percieve and learn to mimic ( I know you are all saying duh) but I really had a moment of enlightenment about Eli and these other GERDlings and how sucky it is that reflux does all this to him and them.

Needless to say, she gave me alot of good ideas for the E and even said that she could/would work with him if we chose that. Eli talks extremely well now that he has felt good so long but............. his speech sounds strange, why? because for so long everything he heard sounded funny because he was so full of puke everywhere. These poor litte guys! She totally confirmed some things with me and it was very relieving. He is smart, He is doing well, he has just learned things different through his ears because of how he was taking things in at that critical time.

I took Parker to his first hearing test as a precaution, I wasn't worried at all cause (I thought) I knew he could hear, well he did really bad on the test (she was reccommending a hearing aid if it didn't get better) and the audioogist said that all the ear infections last year caused him to be deaf for 5 months, ad he had learn't to mimic etc like you said- that really opened my ears.

Parker hearing is now good thanks to no ear infections. I am glad you got to learn about it, it is very interesting stuff.

Erin ... how do chronic sinus issues affect speech? Catherine has had 6 ear infections since last September, but they respond quickly to treatment. Her sinus problems are much more difficult to treat and lengthy. I never thought about them affecting her speech (or lack thereof).

with refluxing high and/or it spilling over and/or being congested and/or having fluid in your ears alot affect how you hear sound and in doing that, it will affect the way you make your sounds when speaking and can create many difficulites with speech or not speaking at all.

She used this as an example..... she said if you have fluids in your ears and or sinus it is like listening to sound under water, or another example....is living like when you are driving in a high altitude area, you know how your ears need to pop? it is like that as well all the time.

So, they are unable to hear clearly or correctly :( This is true of Eli, first he was behind in this area because he was so exhausted from having reflux and the infections. But, now that he is healthy his speech has taken off! but, his speech sounds different because he was hearing through foggy ears for so long, so his sounds sound different than normal, he is gradually improving because his ears and sinus are clear now, and we have been working on improving his sounds with him....

I think not being able to hear sound CLEARLY is the key here. The sound is muffled or distant because their heads are filled with yucky junk!

I know I sound like an idiot trying to explain this, LOL. She made it sound much better! Let me go find my notes from the class and hopefully find a link for anyone interested. She said they work with children from ages 10 months to adulthood. And, she was talking about all kinds of stuff but I was just sitting there with light over my head thinking this is refluxers!!!!

OK, this is the website I THINK. I was given a whole bunch this weekend. I haven't looked it over so if it has something way off sorry. I am going to go check it out right now and see what is what on it.

http://www.blockcenter.com/

Edited to say: this isn't the site for the lady or what I heard, they just said they use some of the tequniques from this place to help their own patients.

Erin that made a lot of sense to me, you explained it the same as the hearing lady explained it to me.

I wouldn't feel bad about knowing, I didn't understand until I was told and then felt like a big idiot. I am just glad there was no permanent damage for us.

Erin,

The Block Center woman says alot of the same things as the woman who wrote "Children with Starving Brains." That author, who is a dr, links all points on the autistic spectrum to the brain being malnourished because of GI tract issues, recurrent infections, family history of auto-immune diseases, etc. I finished the book thinking the author was pretty much a nut, but some of what she says makes sense in general and specifically for Catherine.

Ya, after looking through the site there I see it definitely differs from what the lady I was listening to said, but they use some of these techniques. I wish I had the website for this lady I am talking about. She was basicly just saying how it will affect there speech and not all that other mumbo jumbo (is that a word? LOL).

The part about hearing it like your underwater or that your ears need to pop is what really spoke to me.