Why would repeated ear infections affect my child’s ability to acquire language?
Often antibiotics take the infection out of the fluid in the middle ear. Even though the infection is gone, the fluid may remain. Repeated infection and the resulting fluid may give a child the impression that he or she is hearing underwater. Under those conditions, a child may only be hearing a percentage of speech sounds leading to difficulties with acquiring speech and language. A child may be unable to match an adult’s model because they are not hearing the model accurately.
