Say What?

Over the last year, Theo sometimes has gone to stay at Beth's house when I've been working. When I'd pick him up, Beth and I would have a conversation like this:

Me: how'd it go?
Beth: great! he's so cute, he's perfect, he's so funny, I love him, why can't he talk?
Me: what do you mean he can't talk?
Beth: I mean, he can't talk in a good way! It's so cute how I can't ever understand him!

I pretty much figured that anybody not yelling at Beth's house automatically went into her "doesn't talk" category, and didn't think too much about it. I mean, he talks. He obviously says more now than he did a year ago, right? Just cause he doesn't say the sounds for T,R,C,K,TH,SH,P,F,G,L...ok, the only consonants he uses are B, D and sometimes S, but there are a lot of words with those sounds that he says just fine...

Finally last month I realized that Beth was right. He IS too hard to understand for being almost 3, and I scheduled a hearing test for today. Which didn't go so well.

We started out in a little room with a two way mirror (one way window?)and they taught him a game where they rang a buzzer and he dropped a toy into a bucket and if he did it he got a prize, but only if he waited until he heard the noise. He was really cute, listening and holding the toy poised over the bucket. They started the beeps really quiet and kept making them louder until he heard one and dropped the toy.
After that they did something similar with headphones that didn't go over his ears but to bony spots on his head. If he hears better from vibrations through bone than he does through his ears, then there's nothing wrong with him neurologically, it just means the sound isn't getting through his ears right.

And that's what happened. If the little bones in his ear pick up vibrations through his skull, they pass on the sound just fine. If you try to send vibrations through his eardrums, it doesn't work so well. What that means is that he has fluid behind his eardrums that is keeping them from vibrating, and that he'll likely need tubes in his ears to drain the fluid. Then I'm going to drop him off at Beth's house and let him talk her ear off.