The Question of Intervention: How and What is Best?

Proponents of the causal relationship between OME and later learning disabilities also push for early intervention in children who are high risk for OME (Watt, Roberts, and Zeisel, 1993). Watt, Roberts, and Zeisel promote the role of the early childhood educator as the primary early interventionist, claiming that “they can promote healthy practices in the classroom… identify signs of OME… and suggest referrals… address the effects of OME in the classroom, provide an environment that facilitates hearing, and maintain an environment that encourages language learning” (Watt, Roberts, and Zeisel, 1993, p. 66).

As long as the question of whether or not OME causes later learning problems remains unresolved, questions regarding the benefits of different intervention techniques will remain uncertain. Some treatments for OME include antibiotics, a myringotomy, and the insertion of tympanostomy tubes (Watt, Roberts, and Zeisel, 1993). While “in most cases, the natural course of an episode of otitis media with effusion is that it resolves in time” there are cases in which further action should be looked into (Hasenstab, 1987). “A child with otitis media with effusion that continues for three months or longer, or a child who has three evident episodes of middle-ear effusion within a three-month period, is in need of medical attention” (Hasenstab, 1987. citing Downs & Northern, 1984). As stated before, one possible treatment for OME is antibiotics. “Antibiotic treatment… is effective for about 50 percent of the patient population” suffering from OME (Hasenstab, 1987. citing Rubin, 1986). A more aggressive approach towards treatment of OME involves surgical procedures. One popular type of surgical intervention is a myringotomy. A myringotomy involves an incision of the tympanic membrane in order to allow drainage of the effusion (Merriam-Webster, 1995). “Myringotomy with aspiration is… performed as an emergency procedure” in order to avoid the surgical danger that general anesthesia induces (Hasenstab, 1987). “[A] Myringotomy… is … often used in conjunction with the placement of tympanostomy (ventilation) tubes,” which is meant to “aerate the middle ear to prevent the collection of fluid that occurs in the negative pressure state of the middle ear” (Hasenstab, 1987). In one particular study, researchers investigated the efficacy of ventilation tubes in children with OME. As could be expected, areas “where OME was found to have no effect [on learning], treatment with ventilation tubes was also found to have no effect,” but in the specific area of writing “teachers’ ratings of the writing abilities of the OME-VT subjects suggest[ed] that there [was] a positive effect of treatment” (Peters, Grievink, van Bon, and Schilder, 1994, p. 118).

Symptoms identified with OME stated above include a “fluid in… [the] middle ear that can cause mild

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