HEARING DISORDERS OF THE OUTER EAR

 There are three parts in the ear
  1. Outer Ear
  2. Middle Ear
  3. Inner Ear

 Today we are talking about a  condition which can occur in the outer ear,it includes pinna,auditory canal,some of them are consider eardrum(Tympanic membrane) belongs to middle ear. Most disorders of the outer ear are easy to observe, respond to treatment, and usually do not cause significant hearing loss.

  What does a Collapsed Ear Canal mean?

• Especially seen in elderly population

• Results when the tissues lining the ear canal have become very soft.

• May or may not cause hearing loss in majority of cases 

• It’s possible that the pressure will totally collapse the ear canal, and you are actually causing a hearing loss.

• When a audiogram is taken a conductive hearing loss pattern can be seen (usually greatest
  loss in the higher frequencies)

• This can easily be prevented, by using insert earphones.

HOW TO IDENTIFY A "LATE TALKER"?

                             Typical child will speaking his/her "First word" by the age of 12-14 months."First word" need to be a meaningful word. For an example if the child say "mom" for all the females we can't consider it as a meaningful word.Child must say "mom" only for his/her mother.

Most of the children follows a common pattern in development. We cab divide it in to 4 section.Under each section there are subsection few of those section can be present or not.Parents must be aware of there child is following this.

                           Stages of Development

         1. Prelinguistic (0 - 1 years) During this

• Reflexive vocalizations

• Cooing

• Vocal play

• Babbling (sounds Like Ba,Pa)

       Prelinguistic helps the child to speak the 1st word,also help the child to develop the oral-motor skills. In this stage child will make some meaningless sounds when they hear there own sound they keep trying to make new sounds.

       If that child having a hearing loss they will stop cooing so parents need beware of the child's communication skills and changes.

2.  First Words (1 - 1.6)

• Whole-word strategy
• Unanalyzed "wholes"

      First meaningful word (Eg: Only for the mother child should say 'Mom' then it become a meaningful word, some kids use to call mom for other female in that case we can't consider "Mom" as a meaningful word) will achieve in this stage.

3.Phonemic Development (1.6 - 4)

• 50 word vocabulary

    When your child achieve his/her first word since then they will learn new words continuously. At the age of  3.5-4 years they should have a vocabulary of 2000.

4.  Stabilization

•     Acquisition of later sounds

        Not all the sound achieve suddenly it's a process,few sounds will learn at the age of 6 years.You can find out in this link https://dishanlk1.blogspot.com/2015/07/speech-sound-development-chart-today-we.html

    If your child is unable or late ,to meeting above milestones better to consult a Speech language pathologist.