Glue ear and communication

[Brambles34]

We are currently filling in the 18month old development check questionnaire (after I've been raising my concerns) and I know my son will borderline fail it (ive look up the scoring system) I had concerns a few months ago and we had to go down the route of getting his hearing checked first. Turns out he has glue ear but I'm not convinced if that explains away all autism my concerns.

His main issues are not pointing (or waving but he does clap) not speaking (he does babble to us but no meaning to it) doesn't look in The direction that we are pointing (he looks at our hand) can't communicate what he wants (hungry/thirsty etc) and has a tendency to chew things and bite.

The usual red flag things like smiling, eye contact, being around others, repetitive behaviour etc etc we have absolutely no concerns with.

Just wondered what other people experiences have been with glue ear in children of similar age
Thanks

[Brambles34]

Anyone?

[Fresh01]

Glue ear can have a big impact on speech development if they have had it a while. My DS had it between 2-2.5 years of age for an unknown period of time. It was picked up when he was 4 as he wasn't saying some words correctly. We ( us and speech therapists) worked out he couldn't hear or say "f" or "s". These sounds develop between 2-2.5 years of age. But he had "d" and "k" that come between 2.5 and 3.
He had just over a year of speech therapy and work we had to do at home between sessions. Now at 5.5 years his speech is fine and it hasn't affected him learning to read.

Compared to his sisters he said significantly less at 18months than they did. He did suddenly have a speech explosion just before turning 2.
He also liked chewing things and would have something in his mouth. This eased off a lot around the age of 4 but he can still chew things from time to time.
He has no other autistic traits and it has never been an issue either our health visitor, speech therapist etc have asked us to look into for him.
Does he still have glue ear?
Could you ask for a SALT assessment?

[LadyDowagerHatt]

I'm no expert but I remember having similar concerns with my DS who is now 4 and talks non stop, very social and I now have no concerns about on that front. He also could clap but was late to point and wave and fairly late to talk (I think his first words were about 20 and a half months but it all followed quickly as by 22 months he was putting 2 words together and by 2 he was talking in full sentences.

It sounds like the glue ear could have had quite an impact for your DS as well. Have you looked at the MCHAT scoring for autism? www.m-chat.org/_references/mchatdotorg.pdf