For Gabriel Gomez, the world was a quiet place. Even with two sisters, one older and one younger, the 5-year-old from Yucaipa, Calif., didn’t talk much to anybody.

“If he wanted something, he would just point to it,” says his mother, Aime. “It’s really frustrating as a mother when he couldn’t tell me what he wanted, especially his basic needs.”

Besides not talking, Gabriel often came down with ear infections—far too frequently for the liking of Aime. As a nurse at Loma Linda University Medical Center’s acute care unit, she knew something was wrong and took her son to Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital.

Through the audiology department Gabriel was diagnosed with hearing loss and referred to the pediatric ear, nose, and throat group at the Faculty Medical Offices and Mark Rowe, M.D., chief of pediatric head and neck surgery. Rowe found that Gabriel had a lot of extra fluid in his ears, which was causing the frequent ear infections and his hearing loss. In May 2005, Gabriel had a surgery to drain the fluid, and Rowe referred him to Loma Linda University Outpatient Rehabilitation Center for speech therapy.

Since then, Gabriel has received speech therapy twice a week from therapists Adriana Guillen and Gary Lucas. The two therapists help Gabriel through the developmental delay of his speech due to his hearing problem. Guillen, a bilingual therapist, works with Gabriel on his Spanish to strengthen his first language.

“The link between hearing and speaking is huge,” notes Guillen. “If you have a strong first language, you have a base for translating and understanding, both other languages and your culture. In that respect, speech therapy helps connect people on many levels.”

For Gabriel’s mother, speech therapy has provided a big relief. “Now Gabriel can tell me if he’s cold or what he wants to eat. And he is a lot more friendly now.” Which is something his older sister appreciates a lot.