Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ear Update

We took Kaylee to the audiologist again this morning for more behavioral testing and she did very well. The audiologist also ran another OAE test on her left ear and it passed again! So that's two passes in a row. She does not think Kaylee needs to see her again based on today's appointment, and was sending her results to the other audiologist, ENT and pediatrician. She told us that Kaylee's hearing is well within the speech banana* so she does not need a hearing aid. Yay!!

The audiologist said it's possible that because Kaylee has small ear canals, that she's just now passing the OAE tests because her ears are finally big enough for the equipment to work properly. Or she could have had some sort of blockage that has sorted itself out in the past couple months. Whatever happened, she was pleased with today's/other recent results, and especially that she passed the OAE test again today.

The audiologist also said Kaylee was so cute and well behaved during the testing (what with all the things stuck in her ears) that she could be an audiology model. Aww, I bet she says that to all the parents... ;-)

*The following is taken from this site: (this link may or may not work...sometimes it does, sometimes not.)
When all the sounds necessary for speech were initially graphed and a line was drawn around them, the shape looked like a banana. The term "speech banana" was coined. This area is the target hearing area for children with hearing loss. If they are able to hear sounds within the speech banana when they are aided with hearing aids, there is a better chance they will understand that sound and be able to reproduce it in their speech.

I found another site with an image of the banana: Click Here

3 comments:

Diedre said...

Yay Kaylee! That's wonderful news!

Anonymous said...

Well, after all, our girl is the Banana Kid, so her banana SHOULD be great! This is fabulous news, and truly an answer to lots of prayers.

Gramma Parker

I wouldn't be anonymous except I can't ever remember my password!

Stephanie said...

That's awesome, great job Kaylee!