My son is 16 months old, has had 4 ear infections, and is not talking. does he need to see an ent or is a hearing evaluation enough?

SPEECH DELAY:: At 1 year 2-5 words with meaning .., 2 years 2-3 word sentence, sometimes little delay is acceptable. Ur son had 4 ear infections, needs hearing screening (tympanometry, oae) at pediatrician's office, if available. If fails, need formal hearing evaluation by audiologist. Depending on the result, ENT referral or speech therapy is decided. If recent recurrent ear infection, ENT doc. Puts pe tubes.

If middle ear fluid: persists between bouts of otitis media, middle ear infection, it can cause some conductive hearing loss, but not persistent Expressive Language Delay after it clears spontaneously or by surgery. He needs an ENT exam, an accurate hearing test & developmental evaluation by CA's Early Intervention Program. Find your local EI on http://www.dds.ca.gov/EarlyStart/docs/EarlyStart_InformationPacket.pdf.