Does She Have Autism or Just Hearing Difficulties?

I need assistance on determining if my daughter falls onto the Autistic Spectrum or if she is a normal child who is behind cognitively due to hearing difficulties as a child.

My daughter Lily is 3 1/2 years old. She had seven hearing infections from about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years. Her mother and I switched doctors after we learned Lily should have had tubes put in much earlier.

The tubes were put in, and immediately Lily's development took off; however she was a year behind the normal curve for kids her age. The E.N.T. doctor explained Lily's hearing was like Charlie Brown listening to his mom, "Wahhh Wahhh Wahh."

I have since gained several professional assessments of Lily that have stated she has mild-moderate Autism; resulting in her having to take speech, occupational, and peer-interraction therapies. However, I have learned that loss of hearing (or partial) at a young age can affect a childs cognitive processes, sensory motor, gross and fine motor skills.

Is it possible she may just be legitimately behind due to ear issues and not Autism. It seems both loss of hearing and Autism share related symptoms. I am basically wondering if she may just be behind, or did she develop Autism after the hearing loss, or was she born with Autism?

Hi matthewp23,

Autism is inherited (or a mutation), you can't just develop it. Do you know what exactly made doctors diagnose her with autism? Did she have EEG for example?

We took her to stanford medical where the doctor's accessed her for Speech, Occupational, and Peer Interraction disorders. They had us fill out multiple questionare that went over where she was with language and development.

She makes eye contact well, does not struggle with emotional expression; just problems with adjusting to environmental changes and attachement to physical objects of comfort.

My wife seems to facilitate the idea she definately has Autism but I am not convinced. I think she may just be kind of a difficult, stubborn (but sweet -) little girl that is behind due to the multiple complications that arise due to hearing problems.

I am not sure what an EEG is but I do not think she's had one. Thank you for your reply. I did not know Autism was inherited; I thought the main school of thought was no one know exactly what it is or why children are developing it at an increased rate.

Well, even if she does have autism, it's not really THAT scary If you are high-functioning you can live your life in a "normal" (for us) way and be very happy.
If she had hearing problems, it's obvious she has speech delay. I don't know about peer interaction though. I think most "normal" people want to be with other people. I wasn't interested in others when I was a child. If she disregard them too, she may be just more introverted than an average person

EEG is a brain-wave recording. Most (all?) autistic people have abnormal brain waves (mostly theta waves).

The cause of autism is unknown - but it means only that they were not able to pinpoint the genes that are responsible for this kind of brain development. I know some people blaim vaccines, toxic materials etc, but I know I've been autistic since the day I was born and I inherited all my autistic traits from my parents (they are both on the spectrum so I had no chance to be normal )

I would guess that she is just behind because of her hearing, but besides that fact it could help to put her on some therapy, but not too much.

You can also get autistic like symptoms because of a brain infection.

My youngest child, who is now 2 does have hearing loss in her left ear. The doctors are monitoring it to make sure it does not get worse but for the time being are leaving her alone. She does talk though. She can say small sentences. But we do have to speak more loudly to her attention.

I say go with your gut. The testing won't hurt him and IF something is wrong you will at least know early. Sometimes better safe then sorry, but you know your child and 2 years old is awfully young in my opinion to be making judgments on speech in general.


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I would suggest removing casein and gluten from your childs diet.

When we did that with my son even after 3 tubal ligations ....that were not successful in stopping his ear infections......but when we removed those food groups my son never got another ear infection..

Don't understand it and I'm just reporting what worked for us.

I'm a big fan of what I've seen with mitochondrial research at John Hopkins with Dr. Richard Kelly's research.

Basically it recommends L Carnatine, Vitamin B5, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and CoQ10 and the balance of these 5 nutrients together restore mitochondrial balance. I look to that for your daughter..the sooner the better.

Good luck

None of us will know whether your daughter has autism. But as you said it is possible she doesnt, in which case it might be harmful to treat her like she does have autism. On the other hand therapies might be helpful regardless, if she is behind due to hearing loss or autism.

What i would recommend is waiting a few years before seeking a professional diagnosis again. To stigmatize a child at a young age as having developmental problems can actually be negative to her development. If you treat her like a normal child, let her develop her own strengths and weakness's, pressure her to achieve, and give her a chance to learn the normal things children need to learn, then you might find she can be as developed as anyone else. Special education will teach her different things from other children, and whether she has autism or not it could easily isolate her further.

This is no professional opinion, so make sure you do what you think is right for your child and then be confident in whichever decision you take.

My son sounds a lot like yours! He babbled all the time but rarely said any words, or only one at a time. Everyone, except me was convinced that he had a speech problem. They tested his hearing, turned out fine, tested him for autism, turned out fine. They did want to put him in speech therapy at two years old, but I declined. In my mind I figured that he would still have plenty of time for speech when he was 3 and was in pre school. I didn't want it drilled into his head that something was wrong with him. I continued to just encourage him when it came to talking and a little after he turned three, it just clicked and he was speaking in sentences. Now he is 7 and never shuts up and does excellent in school.

I have had many ear infections and I am autistic. Autism is often depicted as a limitation in a child's life. But since my parents did not know that I was autistic I was growing up as any other child would.

None of my teachers ever suggested that I was autistic and I went all the way through school like that.

I think the best thing parents can do is to foster their child's talents and believe in their child.

Autism is seen as a negative, but autistic people can often easily outshine other people. Let your child shine. The small little time that your daughter lost will later on disappear and she will most likely out compete many others.

Similar to different IQ's: you look at a person with a low IQ and one with a high IQ: do they get tested to prove what IQ they have? Of course not. Do they get bullied or displaced because of a high or low IQ? Nope.

Children that go through school with everyone making a huge fuss that they are autistic will suffer severely. School peers will taunt them, will bully them, will attack them.

Recognize autism but do not let it be her life.