Ear Infections: Impact on Learning & Behavior
updated 2022
"Ninety percent of hyperactive children studied gave a history of three or more ear infections…" according to a study published in the May 1997 issue of Clinical Pediatrics. In a 1987 article in Parents Pediatric Report, researchers stated, "Ear infections and their effect on language development are prominent topics in the pediatric literature. Hyperactivity is another item of great interest… On the surface, they seem to be two unrelated entities. But could there be a connection between these two conditions? Very much so, says a study from the University of Colorado in Denver, and Yeshiva University in New York."
Early childhood ear infections, which plague many of our children, often succeed in administering an effective, "one-two punch" to a child. First, the subsequent, repeated use of antibiotics to clear up the infection upsets the child's natural intestinal ecology, resulting in an irritated nervous system. Second, the infection and inflammation of the ear often cause some damage to the "cilia" of the ear, the tiny hair-like structures of the ear that help transmit sound, affecting both language abilities and auditory processing. These effects can be felt throughout a child's school career. However, once the cause is established many natural things can be done to greatly reduce, and eliminate these problems.
Effects of Repeated Antibiotic Use
We are very grateful for the discovery of antibiotics. Their timely use has saved many lives. However, the multiple use of antibiotics, particularly the use of the broad-spectrum antibiotics sterilize a child's intestines, eliminating the good bacteria, while feeding the naturally occurring yeast in the intestines. This causes an upset balance in the ecology that directly affects a child's nervous system. Some books that explain this process in more detail are, Help for Your Hyperactive Child by William Crook, M.D. and Super immunity for Kids by Leo Galland, M.D. Most often we see this upset ecology manifesting itself as problems with learning or with behavior. The learning problems associated with this condition are poor memory, difficulty with sustained attention (often seeming "spacey"), and difficulty understanding new concepts. The behavior problems that we see are hyperactivity, anger, moodiness, irritability, or inappropriate behavior, often talking too loudly or invading others' space regularly. In my experience working with bright but struggling students in special education and regular education programs, I have seen many children exhibiting these symptoms. Some of them are placed on the medication Ritalin. Others are labeled with a learning disability, often with an auditory or language processing dysfunction. A smaller group is placed in a behavior lab program in the school, with an individual IEP designed to modify their unsociable behavior. When I have studied the files of this diverse group of children, however, I have often found a common link. I found that many of them suffered from many ear infections as a young children. I also found that even more of the children have some type of allergy. As we know, when yeast overgrowth is an issue, the child often develops a "leaky gut", causing food allergies to develop. The most common offending food, in the case of ear infections or bedwetting, is milk and milk products. I have seen so many children's "learning and behavior problems," respond to simple interventions such as a trial elimination of dairy products, along with replacing some of the missing “good” bacteria in the intestines. To replace the “good” bacteria, a parent can simply buy a product in a health food store that contains the good bacterial strains, acidophilus, and Bifidus. Although this “good” bacteria is present in yogurt, it is in very small amounts. When purchasing a more concentrated form of this “good” bacteria as a supplement, buy a brand that is refrigerated in the health food store, since this is a live bacteria. It can be purchased in capsule or powder and placed in juice or cold food without altering its taste. The liquid and chewable forms of this supplement are far less viable. Parents report to me that giving their child this, natural, beneficial bacteria two or three times a day often results in a reduction in temper tantrums, less irritability, better concentration, and a more cooperative child. Reducing sugar intake also makes a noticeable difference in behavior. There are many more things that can be done to help a child whose nervous system is upset due to the multiple uses of antibiotics, but this is a good beginning and almost always brings good results.
Effects on Language and Auditory Processing
One of the results of multiple childhood ear infections can be difficult with language and auditory processing.
The level of your child’s receptive and expressive language is a reflection on how well the brain received (quality of heard sounds), processed (how the brain understands the distorted sounds), stored (remembers), and utilizes (language) sounds in his/her environment. These children have difficulty distinguishing certain sounds. These children have difficulty distinguishing certain sounds. Sometimes this difficulty with the discrimination of individual sounds can present itself as a speech problem or in learning phonics. Both their reading and their spelling are affected. It also affects the way that they are able to listen. We frequently accuse our children of having, "selective hearing" meaning that they choose to listen to things other than their parents. This can be the case of course, but because of the amount of energy, the process of listening and storing auditory information requires, the child can do only so much listening before he tunes out because of the overload. At times these children are inaccurately diagnosed as being ADD (attention deficit disorder), when actually their attention is dependent on the amount of auditory processing that is required for a situation. These children often have difficulty sequencing, as represented by repeating a story with the events in proper order. They also have difficulty hearing their own internal voice, preferring to read aloud to understand information. Tasks that require alphabetizing are particularly onerous to them, as they have to repeat the alphabet over and over to themselves in their head. They often do anything to avoid this type of task.
What are some things that we can do to help our child with these kinds of problems resulting from multiple ear infections? We can teach them in a more visual manner, using pictures for clarification, teaching phonic sounds (called phonemes) with the letter combination superimposed on a picture that gives that sound. We can teach them right brain strategies such as visualizing a word to more easily memorize its' spelling. We can teach them math facts using funny stories and pictures, using their right brain to store them, rather than the rote learning that the left, auditory brain hemisphere enjoys. And we can use natural vitamin supplements to help heal the auditory system. As mentioned earlier, the "cilia" of the ear is affected by multiple ear infections. In his book, Feed Your Kids Right, by Lendon H. Smith, M.D., the famous "baby doctor," states that the highest concentration of vitamin A in the whole body is in the cilia of the ear. After multiple ear infections, the amount stored of this vitamin is greatly depleted. Knowing that a deficiency of essential fatty acids is often found in learning disabilities, we can supplement them by using some orange-flavored cod liver oil, which is a good source of both vitamin A and essential fatty acids. Of course, you would always add some vitamin E in the form of drops or capsules to keep the oil from oxidizing in the body. Flaxseed oil (not capsules) that also contains borage oil is helpful. I’ve been advised by a naturopath that it would require nine capsules to equal the same amount of oil in one teaspoon of liquid Flaxseed oil. Along with a good yeast-free multiple vitamins and separate multiple minerals, a healing program would be started. It has also been found that the use of lecithin granules, by helping the body utilize the essential fatty acids more efficiently, brings even faster results in minimizing the effect of an auditory processing problem. According to the research, after four months, the child's information processing should be much easier.
Although the impact of multiple childhood ear infections on a child's learning and behavior can be large, it does not have to be permanent. There are many natural approaches to correcting the influence of these ear infections. Learning can become easier and a child's nervous system can be calmed by using the natural supplements that God has given us.
There is GOOD NEWS!! Learning and behavior problems stemming from undetected ear infections can be eliminated!! How?
Neurodevelopment Theory
According to the information processing theory, there are two components necessary for learning. One is the brains ability to Receive, Process, Store and Utilize information taken in by the sensory system. The second is the frequency, intensity and duration of the input. Depending on how efficiently the sensory system received, processed, stored is a direct reflection on how efficiently the brain can utilize that information. If there are any problems with the information coming in to our brain, it will stop or decrease our ability to learn.
Stimulation
Our brains learn from Frequency, Intensity and Duration. Frequency is providing many, many exposures or ‘input’ to concepts. Most curricula give a few exposures or ‘inputs’ to information rather than many, many. Input IS NOT testing. Once you ask the question…can you, show me, how, when, where, why, pick the correct one, you are testing the child for information. When a child learns anything new they gladly tell you, repeatedly! Intensity is the magnitude of force or energy per saturation of the input. It’s the how big, bright, fast or exciting of the input. Duration is the length of time of the input. Research shows the brain is only able to hold its attention/focus for 20-30 minutes; so our lessons are short and repeated throughout the day.
Maturity
The SMART/neurodevelopment theory aims to mature sensory pathways of visual auditory and tactile/kinesthetic and we ‘measure’ the maturation through the motor pathways of fine and gross motor and language skills. It works like this; you receive stimulus or input through the sensory pathways. The brain processes the information and then you have motor responses or output through the motor pathways.
Due to readiness skills deficits, the input into some children is not clear and/or consistent and there appear to be ‘gaps’ in learning. Therefore, the output is the same and the same ‘gaps’ appear. These children cannot perform at their natural intelligence, even though they are trying as hard as they can.
Acceleration
Now, here is where we take education to a cellular level. A brain cell is called a neuron and we all have 10 billion+ neurons. Neurons are unique in that they communicate with each other. Neurons are messengers. Each neuron has an axon that transmits an electrical/chemical charge. The electrical charge, once it has developed sufficient potency, jumps the synaptic cleft/gap by way of chemicals called neurotransmitters. Then the electrical charge is received by the dendrites of a second neuron. Our hope as educators is to help the messages to travel quickly and efficiently. We want to accelerate both the speed and efficiency of the neurons messages!
What happens in two ways, first by increasing the paths by which the message can travel and second by increasing the speed at which the message travels. Novel stimulation causes the neurons to grow branches called dendrites and connect to other cells. Each dendrite can connect between 2 and 200,000 other dendrites. Now that's a lot of options for the brain to take when sending a message!
Myelin is a fatty layer of tissue that sheathes the axon of each neuron. This sheath around the axon acts like a conduit in an electrical system, ensuring that messages sent by axons move quickly and are not lost in route. Picture a regular extension cord versus the thick, heavy-duty orange extension cord. The thicker the insulation on the cord, the higher the rating and capability it has. The thicker the myelin on the axon, the faster the message can be transmitted. Many layers allow for efficient conduction of the electrical impulse down the axon. The more positive stimulation the brain receives; the more myelin is produced.
Readiness
To explain readiness, it is important to understand the functions of two areas of the brain. The first is the lowest level of the brain known as the Brain Stem. The Brain Stem consists of the Pons, Medulla, Mid-Brain, and Cerebellum, which controls the coordination of all unconscious motor activity. It is the area in charge of automatic function and is the foundation for readiness skills. Examples are:
* the eyes moving smoothly together across a page
* A sense of balance that allows a child to sit upright in a chair
* Ability to differentiate between similar sounds
It is crucial that these skills are automatic or unconscious when we are learning. If they are not automatic, then the Cortex must think about each step needed to complete a 'request''. Like walking; if the person hasn't established a cross-pattern, automatic, walk then the brain must think about each muscle and movement to simply walk. Have you ever hear the phrase "Can't walk and chew gum?" the person really can't!
This is important, because if the skills are done consciously, then the Cortex can be involved. The Cortex can only do one thing at a time. If the Brain Stem is doing its work automatically, then the Cortex can concentrate to make the eyes move smoothly across a page of print and the student may appear to read. But, the ROLE of the Cortex in reading is to do the comprehension. If the Cortex is involved or 'taken up with the eye movements, then it is no longer available for comprehension because it can only do one job. The result or results are things educators see every day when teaching children. Children who:
* Only seem to be able to follow one step in a list of directions
* Seem to have learned skill in isolation, but cannot transfer it
* Can read a text but cannot remember what they just read
With the S.M.A.R.T. program, we aim to have the foundation skills in place, so the BRAIN STEM can do its automatic function and the CORTEX is free to do its job!
Training
Finally, we come to training. In the S.M.A.R.T. program, children do many activities which TRAIN or encourage the brain to use both hemispheres at the same time. Despite the split, the two hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other through a thick tract of white nerve fibers call the Corpus Callosum. It connects the two hemispheres and transfers important information from one side to the other.
We want to train the two hemispheres to communicate because using both sides of the brain is very important when learning how to read and when expressing feelings and thoughts...
* Right hemisphere controls feelings and thoughts
* Left hemisphere controls language
* We use both sides when we talk about how we feel
Training is also using all of these principles together; Stimulation, Maturity, Acceleration, and Readiness to Train the brain. We do this through a series of specific activities, which integrate into the existing curriculum, to make the brains and bodies of your children ready so they can learn!
Each of the above areas is extremely important to the ability to learn easily. I often find that it is the combination of inefficiencies that make each person’s learning problems unique, and this is the reason ‘packaged programs’ don’t work well for the majority of people.
Can Learn Christian Academy’s staff have been trained and certified to evaluate and design exercise/activities as well as the Hemisphere Specific Auditory Stimulation (HSAS) program to eliminate these struggles allowing your child to meet and exceed his/her potential! www.canlearnacademy.org 509-362-3418
By: Toni Hager BS, NDS Can Learn Christian Academy© 2014
Return to home page
updated 2022
"Ninety percent of hyperactive children studied gave a history of three or more ear infections…" according to a study published in the May 1997 issue of Clinical Pediatrics. In a 1987 article in Parents Pediatric Report, researchers stated, "Ear infections and their effect on language development are prominent topics in the pediatric literature. Hyperactivity is another item of great interest… On the surface, they seem to be two unrelated entities. But could there be a connection between these two conditions? Very much so, says a study from the University of Colorado in Denver, and Yeshiva University in New York."
Early childhood ear infections, which plague many of our children, often succeed in administering an effective, "one-two punch" to a child. First, the subsequent, repeated use of antibiotics to clear up the infection upsets the child's natural intestinal ecology, resulting in an irritated nervous system. Second, the infection and inflammation of the ear often cause some damage to the "cilia" of the ear, the tiny hair-like structures of the ear that help transmit sound, affecting both language abilities and auditory processing. These effects can be felt throughout a child's school career. However, once the cause is established many natural things can be done to greatly reduce, and eliminate these problems.
Effects of Repeated Antibiotic Use
We are very grateful for the discovery of antibiotics. Their timely use has saved many lives. However, the multiple use of antibiotics, particularly the use of the broad-spectrum antibiotics sterilize a child's intestines, eliminating the good bacteria, while feeding the naturally occurring yeast in the intestines. This causes an upset balance in the ecology that directly affects a child's nervous system. Some books that explain this process in more detail are, Help for Your Hyperactive Child by William Crook, M.D. and Super immunity for Kids by Leo Galland, M.D. Most often we see this upset ecology manifesting itself as problems with learning or with behavior. The learning problems associated with this condition are poor memory, difficulty with sustained attention (often seeming "spacey"), and difficulty understanding new concepts. The behavior problems that we see are hyperactivity, anger, moodiness, irritability, or inappropriate behavior, often talking too loudly or invading others' space regularly. In my experience working with bright but struggling students in special education and regular education programs, I have seen many children exhibiting these symptoms. Some of them are placed on the medication Ritalin. Others are labeled with a learning disability, often with an auditory or language processing dysfunction. A smaller group is placed in a behavior lab program in the school, with an individual IEP designed to modify their unsociable behavior. When I have studied the files of this diverse group of children, however, I have often found a common link. I found that many of them suffered from many ear infections as a young children. I also found that even more of the children have some type of allergy. As we know, when yeast overgrowth is an issue, the child often develops a "leaky gut", causing food allergies to develop. The most common offending food, in the case of ear infections or bedwetting, is milk and milk products. I have seen so many children's "learning and behavior problems," respond to simple interventions such as a trial elimination of dairy products, along with replacing some of the missing “good” bacteria in the intestines. To replace the “good” bacteria, a parent can simply buy a product in a health food store that contains the good bacterial strains, acidophilus, and Bifidus. Although this “good” bacteria is present in yogurt, it is in very small amounts. When purchasing a more concentrated form of this “good” bacteria as a supplement, buy a brand that is refrigerated in the health food store, since this is a live bacteria. It can be purchased in capsule or powder and placed in juice or cold food without altering its taste. The liquid and chewable forms of this supplement are far less viable. Parents report to me that giving their child this, natural, beneficial bacteria two or three times a day often results in a reduction in temper tantrums, less irritability, better concentration, and a more cooperative child. Reducing sugar intake also makes a noticeable difference in behavior. There are many more things that can be done to help a child whose nervous system is upset due to the multiple uses of antibiotics, but this is a good beginning and almost always brings good results.
Effects on Language and Auditory Processing
One of the results of multiple childhood ear infections can be difficult with language and auditory processing.
The level of your child’s receptive and expressive language is a reflection on how well the brain received (quality of heard sounds), processed (how the brain understands the distorted sounds), stored (remembers), and utilizes (language) sounds in his/her environment. These children have difficulty distinguishing certain sounds. These children have difficulty distinguishing certain sounds. Sometimes this difficulty with the discrimination of individual sounds can present itself as a speech problem or in learning phonics. Both their reading and their spelling are affected. It also affects the way that they are able to listen. We frequently accuse our children of having, "selective hearing" meaning that they choose to listen to things other than their parents. This can be the case of course, but because of the amount of energy, the process of listening and storing auditory information requires, the child can do only so much listening before he tunes out because of the overload. At times these children are inaccurately diagnosed as being ADD (attention deficit disorder), when actually their attention is dependent on the amount of auditory processing that is required for a situation. These children often have difficulty sequencing, as represented by repeating a story with the events in proper order. They also have difficulty hearing their own internal voice, preferring to read aloud to understand information. Tasks that require alphabetizing are particularly onerous to them, as they have to repeat the alphabet over and over to themselves in their head. They often do anything to avoid this type of task.
What are some things that we can do to help our child with these kinds of problems resulting from multiple ear infections? We can teach them in a more visual manner, using pictures for clarification, teaching phonic sounds (called phonemes) with the letter combination superimposed on a picture that gives that sound. We can teach them right brain strategies such as visualizing a word to more easily memorize its' spelling. We can teach them math facts using funny stories and pictures, using their right brain to store them, rather than the rote learning that the left, auditory brain hemisphere enjoys. And we can use natural vitamin supplements to help heal the auditory system. As mentioned earlier, the "cilia" of the ear is affected by multiple ear infections. In his book, Feed Your Kids Right, by Lendon H. Smith, M.D., the famous "baby doctor," states that the highest concentration of vitamin A in the whole body is in the cilia of the ear. After multiple ear infections, the amount stored of this vitamin is greatly depleted. Knowing that a deficiency of essential fatty acids is often found in learning disabilities, we can supplement them by using some orange-flavored cod liver oil, which is a good source of both vitamin A and essential fatty acids. Of course, you would always add some vitamin E in the form of drops or capsules to keep the oil from oxidizing in the body. Flaxseed oil (not capsules) that also contains borage oil is helpful. I’ve been advised by a naturopath that it would require nine capsules to equal the same amount of oil in one teaspoon of liquid Flaxseed oil. Along with a good yeast-free multiple vitamins and separate multiple minerals, a healing program would be started. It has also been found that the use of lecithin granules, by helping the body utilize the essential fatty acids more efficiently, brings even faster results in minimizing the effect of an auditory processing problem. According to the research, after four months, the child's information processing should be much easier.
Although the impact of multiple childhood ear infections on a child's learning and behavior can be large, it does not have to be permanent. There are many natural approaches to correcting the influence of these ear infections. Learning can become easier and a child's nervous system can be calmed by using the natural supplements that God has given us.
There is GOOD NEWS!! Learning and behavior problems stemming from undetected ear infections can be eliminated!! How?
Neurodevelopment Theory
According to the information processing theory, there are two components necessary for learning. One is the brains ability to Receive, Process, Store and Utilize information taken in by the sensory system. The second is the frequency, intensity and duration of the input. Depending on how efficiently the sensory system received, processed, stored is a direct reflection on how efficiently the brain can utilize that information. If there are any problems with the information coming in to our brain, it will stop or decrease our ability to learn.
Stimulation
Our brains learn from Frequency, Intensity and Duration. Frequency is providing many, many exposures or ‘input’ to concepts. Most curricula give a few exposures or ‘inputs’ to information rather than many, many. Input IS NOT testing. Once you ask the question…can you, show me, how, when, where, why, pick the correct one, you are testing the child for information. When a child learns anything new they gladly tell you, repeatedly! Intensity is the magnitude of force or energy per saturation of the input. It’s the how big, bright, fast or exciting of the input. Duration is the length of time of the input. Research shows the brain is only able to hold its attention/focus for 20-30 minutes; so our lessons are short and repeated throughout the day.
Maturity
The SMART/neurodevelopment theory aims to mature sensory pathways of visual auditory and tactile/kinesthetic and we ‘measure’ the maturation through the motor pathways of fine and gross motor and language skills. It works like this; you receive stimulus or input through the sensory pathways. The brain processes the information and then you have motor responses or output through the motor pathways.
Due to readiness skills deficits, the input into some children is not clear and/or consistent and there appear to be ‘gaps’ in learning. Therefore, the output is the same and the same ‘gaps’ appear. These children cannot perform at their natural intelligence, even though they are trying as hard as they can.
Acceleration
Now, here is where we take education to a cellular level. A brain cell is called a neuron and we all have 10 billion+ neurons. Neurons are unique in that they communicate with each other. Neurons are messengers. Each neuron has an axon that transmits an electrical/chemical charge. The electrical charge, once it has developed sufficient potency, jumps the synaptic cleft/gap by way of chemicals called neurotransmitters. Then the electrical charge is received by the dendrites of a second neuron. Our hope as educators is to help the messages to travel quickly and efficiently. We want to accelerate both the speed and efficiency of the neurons messages!
What happens in two ways, first by increasing the paths by which the message can travel and second by increasing the speed at which the message travels. Novel stimulation causes the neurons to grow branches called dendrites and connect to other cells. Each dendrite can connect between 2 and 200,000 other dendrites. Now that's a lot of options for the brain to take when sending a message!
Myelin is a fatty layer of tissue that sheathes the axon of each neuron. This sheath around the axon acts like a conduit in an electrical system, ensuring that messages sent by axons move quickly and are not lost in route. Picture a regular extension cord versus the thick, heavy-duty orange extension cord. The thicker the insulation on the cord, the higher the rating and capability it has. The thicker the myelin on the axon, the faster the message can be transmitted. Many layers allow for efficient conduction of the electrical impulse down the axon. The more positive stimulation the brain receives; the more myelin is produced.
Readiness
To explain readiness, it is important to understand the functions of two areas of the brain. The first is the lowest level of the brain known as the Brain Stem. The Brain Stem consists of the Pons, Medulla, Mid-Brain, and Cerebellum, which controls the coordination of all unconscious motor activity. It is the area in charge of automatic function and is the foundation for readiness skills. Examples are:
* the eyes moving smoothly together across a page
* A sense of balance that allows a child to sit upright in a chair
* Ability to differentiate between similar sounds
It is crucial that these skills are automatic or unconscious when we are learning. If they are not automatic, then the Cortex must think about each step needed to complete a 'request''. Like walking; if the person hasn't established a cross-pattern, automatic, walk then the brain must think about each muscle and movement to simply walk. Have you ever hear the phrase "Can't walk and chew gum?" the person really can't!
This is important, because if the skills are done consciously, then the Cortex can be involved. The Cortex can only do one thing at a time. If the Brain Stem is doing its work automatically, then the Cortex can concentrate to make the eyes move smoothly across a page of print and the student may appear to read. But, the ROLE of the Cortex in reading is to do the comprehension. If the Cortex is involved or 'taken up with the eye movements, then it is no longer available for comprehension because it can only do one job. The result or results are things educators see every day when teaching children. Children who:
* Only seem to be able to follow one step in a list of directions
* Seem to have learned skill in isolation, but cannot transfer it
* Can read a text but cannot remember what they just read
With the S.M.A.R.T. program, we aim to have the foundation skills in place, so the BRAIN STEM can do its automatic function and the CORTEX is free to do its job!
Training
Finally, we come to training. In the S.M.A.R.T. program, children do many activities which TRAIN or encourage the brain to use both hemispheres at the same time. Despite the split, the two hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other through a thick tract of white nerve fibers call the Corpus Callosum. It connects the two hemispheres and transfers important information from one side to the other.
We want to train the two hemispheres to communicate because using both sides of the brain is very important when learning how to read and when expressing feelings and thoughts...
* Right hemisphere controls feelings and thoughts
* Left hemisphere controls language
* We use both sides when we talk about how we feel
Training is also using all of these principles together; Stimulation, Maturity, Acceleration, and Readiness to Train the brain. We do this through a series of specific activities, which integrate into the existing curriculum, to make the brains and bodies of your children ready so they can learn!
Each of the above areas is extremely important to the ability to learn easily. I often find that it is the combination of inefficiencies that make each person’s learning problems unique, and this is the reason ‘packaged programs’ don’t work well for the majority of people.
Can Learn Christian Academy’s staff have been trained and certified to evaluate and design exercise/activities as well as the Hemisphere Specific Auditory Stimulation (HSAS) program to eliminate these struggles allowing your child to meet and exceed his/her potential! www.canlearnacademy.org 509-362-3418
By: Toni Hager BS, NDS Can Learn Christian Academy© 2014
Return to home page
