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