This story is from the parent of an LTS recipient named Truett:
Before preschool and school, Truett had numerous ear infections. Later, we noticed some speech problems and we got him evaluated and started speech therapy. We switched doctors and had tubes put in immediately at 5 years old which is later than usual but he still needed them, which made a world of difference. However, there was still scar tissue causing some hearing loss. We did not know this though, we thought the tubes fixed everything. When he got the tubes put in, he was on the bottom of the range considered normal hearing but the doctor hoped it would improve with time and healing. The tubes were put in the summer before kindergarten.
During kindergarten at Pinewood Christian Academy, Truett’s teacher noticed that he was lip reading and when she turned around and was not facing him, he could not hear her as well. This especially affected him learning sounds and starting to read. After the teacher and school alerted us to this, we got further testing done and realized he had some permanent hearing loss, not horrible but we felt that hearing aids would help him to hear everything especially during the first few years of school while learning sounds. It was probably affecting other subjects as well but the worst was reading and language. Later on he may be able to go without the hearing aids and compensate on his own but only once he is established with some of his early education.
Throughout all of this, we continued speech therapy and later switched to the speech therapist that goes to Pinewood. She would pull him from class and work with him during the day. We also signed up for tutoring offered during the day at Pinewood. Slowly, he began to improve and has done better and better in school. His speech is normal and he is finished with speech therapy. He even got achievement roll this past year for the first time. We are so proud of him! With Pinewood’s help and working with him at home and the hearing aids, he has overcome his early setbacks. I am thankful Pinewood discovered the problem early on so we could take steps to help him!
I will add for other parents, the teacher can tell a lot at school and help you know where your child is struggling. I will also say, if you feel something isn’t right, continue to ask questions and push for answers. This also goes for doctors, get a second opinion!! Ear infections can do a lot of damage over time and affect hearing permanently.
Pinewood really helped us a lot by figuring out that Truett was getting behind and helping us fix it before it affected his education more. I think the smaller class size and care they put into every student made a huge difference for him. If they had not caught it, it would have taken a long time for us to figure it out on our own because we did not notice the problem as much at home. It really showed up in the classroom and could have had tremendous effects on him for years to come. Thankfully he is thriving!
