The Audiologist and the Nonbenign Conductive Hearing Loss of Otitis Media

Abstract

The growing number of infants with persistent or recurrent serous otitis media has been a deep concern to several disciplines. The otolaryngologist harbors searching questions over the cause and the management of steady or fluctuating serous otitis media; the pediatrician is baffled by questions of its identification and treatment and when it should be referred to the otolaryngologist; the audiologist and language pathologist see rapidly increasing language problems resulting from its early occurrence; and the psychologist may be faced with behavior problems attendant on attacks of serous otitis media. Any adverse language learning sequelae of early recurrent serous otitis media must be related in large part to the degree of hearing loss accompanying the condition. Although some reports have ascribed behavioral problems to the presence of otitis media, and certainly the general malaise of the disease is not to be discounted, the most readily identified symptom of serous otitis media is the hearing loss. Hearing loss lends itself to exact measurement and it should therefore be possible to predict whether language learning could be compromised in any way by recurrent serous otitis. To do this we must look first at the effect on speech perception of a mild conductive hearing loss, such as is found in serous otitis media. Once this has been done, the various reports in the literature linking serous otitis media with auditory language learning problems will become more understandable.