Do ear infections affect speech and language development?
When a child has a middle-ear infection, fluid accumulates in the middle ear. This fluid build up causes a temporary hearing loss. If these infections become frequent or if the fluid build up becomes a long standing problem without an active infection, these children have a higher incidence of speech and language disorders. If a child is having to deal with fluctuating hearing loss at the same time he or she is learning to speak, it makes sense that he or she may have some difficulty. Even a mild hearing loss, as little as 20dB, which would not be detected by a screening, can cause a child not to hear high-frequency sounds ( such as f,z,s,sh,ch), some word endings (such as the plural “s” and past tense “ed”) and some word final consonants ( such as the t in cat). Small words within sentences ( such as “and” and “is”) may also be missed. These effects become even more pronounced in noisy environments ( such as preschool classrooms during free play). Hearing screenings or evaluation are
