Not speaking clearly

My son is 33 months old and will soon be turning 3 years old.  He does not speak clearly and when he does speak only I can understand him.  He babbles and points to things he wants.  I've been trying to get him to name his body parts at bedtime (ex. eyes, ears, nose) and he does well with that, but its hard to understand him.  He has also had concurrent ear infection and matter of fact has ear infections in both ears now.  Could this have and affect on his hearing?  At his last doctor's visit, the Dr. mentioned something about an audiologist to check his hearing.  I'm not sure if his speech is related to his ear infections or should I see a speech therapist?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Yes, repeated infections can have an impact on hearing. Your son's development of speech/language is definitiely delayed, and this warants evaluation by a Speech/Language therapist. But an audiological evaluation is crucial, because it is possible that the delay in speech is secondary to hearing loss.

[kmattice]

I would talk to his pediatrician right away, hearing can and will affect language development. It is hard to check hearing at that age because it assumes cooperation which lets face it most three year olds can sit for a hearing test, I would follow up with the pediatrician and the audiologist, the pediatriacian can give you a referal for a speech language assessment and they can help you determine it language is a problem or not. Boys tend to develop speech later and can be more difficult to understand, and if there is a problem now is a great time to catch it and get him right back on track. Good luck.