European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 25, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To tur health be Alert for youngsters hearing problems by Lynn Bulmahn Cox news service Karen Wolfe of Waco Texas is making certain her 4-year-old son Bear will be ready for kindergarten and beyond. He s been in speech therapy for More than a year now. This fall he will Start additional classes to prepare him to learn. Bear s parents noticed their son did no to talk like Normal children. If he spoke any words at All they were Likely to be numbers. He s fascinated by letters and numbers but is uncommunicative otherwise. Quot the first Lime he said �?~mommy1 or daddy Wasny to until he was 3,&Quot Wolfe said. Yet the youngster reads at a first or second Grade level. He taught himself to sound out letters. Quot we figure he s about a year behind in his speech Quot Wolfe said. Quot we Hope he s trying to catch  boar s problem was diagnosed at the heart of Texas mental health mental retardation where his parents took him for screening. Mhor officials recommended speech therapy. For the past year Bear has been obtaining such help from Hillcrest Baptist medical censer. Wolfe said she is also enrolling her son in creative education Institute and Christian Mission concerns classes this fall. She Hopes the intensive help will prepare Bear to successfully enter regular school classes when he is old enough. Bear is an example of a child who May not be ready for school. He was Lucky. His parents were Alert enough to pick up on his problem and get help for him. Far More children won t be As Lucky. Their parents will either not recognize or will ignore or make excuses for their problems. When its Lime for the youngsters to begin kindergarten or first Grade they May lag behind classmates because they Are unable to adequately hear communicate or process information Well enough to follow directions. That can add up to Early school failure. As Many As 5 percent of All children have such problems said Angie Nix Carter chief speech and language pathologist at Hillcrest s Central Texas rehabilitation Institute who is Bear s therapist. Quot Early identification is what we want for these children Quot Carter said. A the sooner you can recognize the problem the sooner you can take action to Correct it a and enhance their  she said a child who has a hearing or speech problem May become withdrawn from interaction with other children become disruptive in class and have difficulty Reading writing and spelling. Quot children who have a hearing loss May become developmentally delayed and fall behind educationally if their problem is not recognized and dealt with Early Quot said Nancy Baker chief audiologist at Hillcrest. Baker said children who have had frequent inner ear infections meningitis High fever Cleft palates intelligence deficits motor disorders or family histories of speech or hearing difficulties should be screened to make sure they can hear. She said it is possible to do such screening while children Are still infants. Yet american children do not have their hearing difficulty detected As Early As children in other countries a paediatrician examines a child Sears. Frequent inner ear infections can Lead to a hearing loss. By checklist of kids skills by Lynn Bulmahn Cox news service the Best time to catch a child shearing or speech problem is before he or she starts school. To know when a problem exists parents should be aware of Normal development says speech pathologist Angie Carter. If a child seems to be six months or More behind developmental milestones parents should consult a paediatrician who May recommend testing. If testing shows the child s developmental age is More than six months behind his actual age parents should consider enrolling the child in special services to enhance the youngsters communication skills. Hillcrest Hospital rehabilitation officials in Waco Texas provided a checklist of communication skills that most children should be doing a infants with communication problems do not respond to voice or speech. A by age 6 months babies should be Able to respond to their names. They will pay attention or show some recognition when people speak to them. They also should be making repetitive babbling sounds in in the u.s., the average age of identification of a childhood hearing impairment is 2 years in India it is 6 months. A the child May have perfect hearing a but still have a problem. Quot some children hear Well but Don t express themselves a Carter said. Quot they May have what is called an auditory language processing  such a problem affects the child s Reading and writing skills. The child May hear the sounds but not understand the meaning behind what is said Carter explained. Quot verbal and written expression go together. That determines How Well a child does in Reading writing and following  communication disorders often accompany an attention deficit disorder. If children Are unable to understand the teachers directions they May withdraw from participating in a classroom activity Carter said. They May also behave disrupt ively to mask the fact they cannot comprehend what the teacher says. Quot he May try to find other things to do because he s distracted Quot she said. Quot he a looking for other objects of  teachers and paediatricians can refer such children for psychometric testing by an educational psychologist. If the youngster shows a weakness in communication skills he can be referred to a speech and language specialist for help. Addition to crying sounds said audiologist Nancy Baker. To see if the child has a hearing problem Baker said parents should go behind the child where he cannot Selt them and make a noise. If the child does not respond by looking for the source of the sound he May not have heard it. By age 1, most children will be Able to follow simple directions and identify objects by name. They also will begin to speak they usually have a vocabulary of three to five  vocabulary typically expands to around 20 words i months and 50 words by the second birthday. Also by age 2, children should be Able to say Short sentences or phrases. A Between the second and fifth birthdays Carter sad Normal youngsters undergo a rapid language growth. Their vocabulary expands into thousands of words. So fast is this language growth that it is not unusual for a child to stutter. Stuttering begins at age 3 or 4, when a child is rapidly beginning to pull sentences together. It s actually a Normal developmental process and usually will go away on its own. Parents who Correct stuttering May make the problem worse. If stuttering lasts for More than a few months however a paediatrician should be consulted. Page 16 the stars and stripes tuesday september 25,1990