Hi,
I am not an expert in anything related to speech and hearing, but in reading your post I had a few thoughts:
- perhaps his hearing was fine when he was younger and therefore did not affect his speech when he was younger; perhaps his hearing difficulties developed later after a series of ear infections or another infection. Did the audiologist suggest anything like scarring? Even without scarring, a long period of time with fluid in his ears could cause long-term hearing issues.
- I understand the frustration with an older child (mine is about to be 12) still not capitalizing and using punctuation! Man, that's frustrating, especially when my two younger kids seemed to pick it up so easily! Still, as a writer, I have to say that it's not such a bad thing that your DS writes like someone speaking. While there are times when it is appropriate to take a different tone, there are many instances when writers strive to write the way in which people speak. I'm not sure what hearing would have to do with writing, though.
- My DS also has always been a bit flat-toned when speaking as well. This can very easily be affected by hearing loss because he either may not hear the intonation in someone's voice or he may be so busy trying to hear what is said that he just can't concentrate on how it's being said, and he therefore doesn't have anything to model.
- I would think it is very possible that a hearing loss could affect his achievement. If you can only hear some of what is being said in a classroom and you have to really concentrate to do that, over time there would be a cumulative loss of what he was able to be taught.
- From what I understand, you can have hearing loss and APD since hearing loss can be both physical and an ear-brain disconnect.
I hope someone here with experience or specific knowledge will chime in! I wish you luck in gathering more information.
