Our first trip to the ENT was this morning at 9AM for Baker to see Dr. Stephen Kelly in Layton. He did is so good! We thought he had an ear infection but luckily he only saw a little fluid in his left ear but no infection yet so I'm hoping it stays that way and it just gets better. The Dr. came in and did a brief exam on him and asked us a few general questions. We then did a hearing test which was actually pretty neat! I wish I would have been able to take a picture for you which would have been easier than describing it but it was just your basic field hearing test which he passed just fine. YAY! On Children under 2 they test hearing by using a method called VRA, Visual Reinforced Audiometry or COR, Conditioned Oriented Response. It involved Baker sitting on my lap in the middle of an audiology booth with the audiologist looking in at us through a window. Sounds were presented through speakers on either side of the room. She would say his name in various ways or play various sounds/pitches to get him to look towards that specific side. When Baker turned his head toward her voice or the sound, a toy would light up in the corner to reinforce this action. We were angled at a diagonal in the booth facing a stuffed, animated dog that would bark and move its legs inside a clear square box. The lady would make this dog move and bark to get Baker's attention off the side "toys" so he wouldn't stare at them while they weren't lit up. The test lasted a little over 5 minutes. It was so CUTE to see him react. I had to be careful not to react myself but he wasn't facing me so he really couldn't see my face or what I was doing. However, what was neat was to see him start to realize what was going on and start to look in the corners to anticipate the noise to see the flashing/moving toy. The moving toys in the corner were really cute! One was a monkey playing the drums and the other was a gorilla slamming 2 symbols together. Baker was loving it. I bet he had no idea he was taking a "test" the entire time. :) We left Dr. Kelly's office with the prognosis of Tubes surgery scheduled on Tuesday, 24 August in SLC. Wish us luck and me of course (I'm sure I'll be a wreck leading up to this surgery) that all goes well prior to, during, and his recovery!
*Here is the only picture I could find online that could somewhat show you what the test was like along with the reinforcement "toys" in the corner. He did not wear headphones like the boy in this picture though as he had to sit on my lap during the test.
No comments:
Post a Comment