Milo was diagnosed with moderately-severe hearing loss in both ears at age 2. Wearing hearing aids since, but still not speech. Just got new digital aids in July. I heard that digital aids may need to be adjusted. What are the chances that my son's aids are not set correctly?

Dear Mrs. Keen,
Your little son was diagnosed with a moderately-severe hearing loss, so with hearing aids he should be aware of most speech sounds. Are you doing the Ling Six Sound test with him every morning when he puts on his amplification? By doing this little test, you know that he is aware of the sounds, and if he can repeat them, you know that he has discrimination ability. You can read a paper describing this test on our website: www.jtc.org. It is listed in the Correspondence Course section under Special Papers. And if Milo's hearing test was accurate and his loss is moderately-severe, he will probably respond to all the sounds, except possible /s/. So the first answer to your question about developing speech, is how well Milo can respond to speech with amplification.
Audiologists always program hearing aids, and for children we usually use the DSL method. You expressed some concern that Milo's aids might not be set accurately, so you could ask your audiologist what fitting method she used just so you know.
Knowing that Milo responds to (and possibly can imitate) the Ling Six Sounds, and knowing that his aids are set well, you can begin to consider speech development. Milo received hearing aids at two years of age and he has been wearing them for only six months. That means his "hearing age" is very young. He probably is aware of your voice without hearing aids, but speech is not clear enough for him to form words. So he is just beginning. We have another special paper that will also be of interest to you. It is titled, Stages of Speech and Language Development and you can find it on our website, too. Take a look at what a six month old child does, for that is Milo's "hearing age." He's probably progressed beyond that, so you can consider the next steps for him. Does he use his voice with inflection? Can he say "Dada" and "Mama" meaningfully? Then you can expect him to begin to use single words in labeling objects. Milo's spoken language will develop exactly like that of a normal hearing child, so he will follow all of these steps. And with good hearing aids and speech therapy, he can catch up to his age level.
Are you enrolled in our Correspondence Course? The lessons will provide many ideas to help you guide Milo in developing his spoken language. I encourage you to complete the application and begin. There is much to learn and I know that you and Milo will enjoy the Games and Activities together.
Please write again if you have more questions.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Sutherland