Does My Child Have Speech Delays? How Can an ENT Help?

 

Speech Delays

Speech delays are very common amongst young children and have many different contributing factors. Many parents will express their concerns to their pediatrician, who will first assess the clarity and number of words in the child’s vocabulary. There are different benchmarks for each stage of development and your pediatrician advise if your child is within normal limits. There are many different contributing factors to speech delays in children, including but not limited to:

  • Bilingual upbringing
  • Hearing Loss
  • Comprehension
  • Audtiory Processing
So how can an ENT help? An ENT will likely first rule out hearing loss as the culprit by ordering a complete audiogram. Audiograms are done by an audiologist that is trained to test children with appropriate methods for their age. If the results show a hearing loss of significant degree that would cause speech delays, an ENT may order additional testing, such as a CT or MRI to rule out anatomical issues. Additionally, fluid build up may decrease a child’s hearing as well and an ENT may recommend ear tubes to improve their hearing. There could be other anatomical findings that contribute to hearing loss in children which will need to be diagnosed by CT or MRI scans. If an audiogram is normal and a physical examine is normal, an ENT may direct you to speech therapy to help your child begin a more robust language development. The good news is there are many different reasons for speech delay and options available to get your young ones on track! Ask your pediatrician is seeing an ENT may be helpful for your child.

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