Michael was a very likable boy of five. Perhaps a bit absent minded but pleasant and inquisitive and a joy to his parents. He was a sickly child very early on, suffering from chronic ear infections. These caused him a lot of pain, but, thank goodness, at the age of to he had tubes implanted and the crying stopped.

When Michael was being tested by the school for “kindergarden readiness” he did well, his mom and dad had little doubt he would do well. He spoke clearly most of the time and always seemed to be involved in something. He did well enough in preschool and was always respectful. You can imagine the complete shock in his parents faces when, at the end of the day the teacher said Michael is such a bright child, but how long has he read lips?

The long and the short of it was that Michael needed a hearing test, which revealed a 10 percent hearing loss in both ears, probably attributable to the ear infections he had as a youngster. Thank goodness for testing!

Michael’s hearing loss was not significant enough to cause a need for hearing aids, etc. It did however, put his parents on notice to watch for other things to develop, One of them did, a speech problem called velor fronting whereby the child can not easily pronounce the hard “K” sound

The velor fronting was aggressively addressed with speech pathology classes and some extra help and Michael, in 2003 began his freshman year of college! His success can be attributed in part to early identification of his need and aggressive follow-up. All of this from a good partnership with the school

Please, for the sake of your little one, do not ignore anything you see and talk to the teachers and staff – they see your child as many hours as day as you – in some cases more!.

James O’Keefe is the owner of My Millionaire Friend. offering FREE articles, tips, hints, and real-world advice on how to make money with your website. Visit his site or join his FREE newsletter by sending a blank email to mailto:newsletter@mymillionairefriend.com.

James O’Keefe is the owner of My Millionaire Friend offering FREE articles, tips, hints, and real-world advice on how to make money with your website. Visit his site or join his FREE newsletter, by sending a blank email to mailto:newsletter@mymillionairefriend.com.