Audiology appointment for ds -speech issues

[motherofvikings]

Ds is almost 4yo and missing sounds like c, s, g.
He chatters away confidently with a great vocabulary tho so it is just the missing sounds holding him back iyswim.

Getting to see a speech therapist here is almost impossible (even HV said that). She is referring him for an audiology appointment as that's often the first thing SLT ask for.

He's only ever had one dose of ear ache and seems to hear normally.

Has anyone thought their dcs hearing was fine, only to be told otherwise?

TIA! :)

[cestlavielife]

may have some glue ear. you need to have audiology review before SLT.

[Mumtoprem]

Does he have any other indicators of hearing loss eg turning up tv loud, saying what or "huh", not appearing to hear etc?

Our DD age 4.5 has just been diagnosed with hearing loss after schoolage screening - however this is probably because she was born really premature.

Hope all goes well at audiology.

[motherofvikings]

I don't think he has any signs of hearing loss.
I think he zones out and ignores you at times, but he always hears things like biscuits, tv or dh getting home from work. Which I think is fairly typical for most dc, isn't it?
He doesn't need the tv turned up loud either.

But now we're waiting for an appointment I'm a little worried!

cestlavielife - what are the signs of glue ear?

[Mumtoprem]

I think with young children they can have issues with pronounciation for a while.

And all children selectively ignore!

I am sure everything will be fine :-)

With my DD it was fairly obvious before we completed hearing tests that she wasn't hearing properly, the hearing tests just confirmed it if that makes sense.

[cestlavielife]

On and off hearing issues. But as you say it may not be hearing related so he may just need some specific speech therapy to work. On those sounds.

Good to get a full audiology assessment so you can say for sure .
but get him to speech therapist straight after . Any other learning or develment issues ? If is just a case of those sounds then some speech therapy will be all he needs. Push to get the SLT appt as soon as poss.

[motherofvikings]

He has no other learning/ developmental issues at all. He's sharp as anything and lapping up all teaching, letters, numbers etc at preschool. It's just his speech and these missing sounds.

I think it will be a nagging/ waiting game for SLT here

[MountainOrMolehill]

I think it sounds absolutely fine tbh

He's still young and learning speech. Out dc has glue ear and has grommets fitted. Speech is impaired slightly. And I do mean slightly. You'd only know he has something wrong if I told you.

Try not to worry. One step at a time.

[DeWe]

I wouldn't have realised ds had hearing issues until I saw the difference after his grommets were put in. ENT says that they learn to adapt very well-I didn't realise how well ds could lip read for example.

It's worth having him checked anyway, SALT will ask fairly early on. Ds has SALT and it was the first thing they asked before they began assessment.

[beautifulgirls]

Yes, DD had persistent glue ear and was routinely tested before SALT referral and ended up with grommets in the longer term. We had no idea about her hearing issues.

[motherofvikings]

DeWe and beautifulgirls did your Dc's have glue ear?
What were the symptoms/ signs?

Especially anything you realised with hindsight was wrong Wouk be helpful.

I'm getting myself in a bit of a panic!

[motherofvikings]

Hmmmm

Ds' preschool teacher had a word with me today about him not being able to hear the rhyme in rhyming words. I told her he had an audiology appointment coming and we'd practice at home.

I thought not hearing the rhyme was fairly normal for an almost 4yo but now I'm worrying more and starting to feel guilty that I might have let a hearing problem go by unnoticed for ages!

[orangepudding]

Have you tried calling the SLT department yourself? That's what I did for my son.

My son can't say many of his sounds, he's nearly 5. He doesn't appear to have hearing issues as he can point to pictures on a peice of paper such as nose/rose/hose when they are said even though he mispronounces them himself. I did ask his SLT about having his hearing test but she doesn't think he needs one. Like your son mine have good language and a good vocab just can't pronounce many things!

[Onetwothreeoops]

Before my DS was diagnosed with hearing loss his speech was impaired slightly. He was replacing the softer sounds in words with harder sounds. For example because he couldn't hear a soft fffffff he would say bish instead of fish. Other than that he hid the loss very well.

Don't panic about hearing loss, any problems can be resolved or coped with.

[motherofvikings]

I've spoken to SLT team. They are not taking any new cases as there is a backlog!

So even though he was assessed in a different LA before we moved they won't see him. He is being assessed/ triage-ed by preschool so they will be able to do something once they have had him a bit longer (he's only been at that one since jan>

Will be talking to preschool later this week about how things are going.

Thanks for the reassurance! :)

[motherofvikings]

Ds' audiology appointment came through today - 2 weeks time. :)

Except ds is saying he's scared and wanting to know what'll happen. Obviously he'll have to listen to stuff but is that it or do they have a good look in there too?

Can anyone explain what happened at their appointment?

TIA!

[motherofvikings]

Oh and preschool have been great. They've assessed him, spoken to SLT who will see him in a few weeks and they're going to do 1:1 sessions with him 3x a week. :)

[Mumtoprem]

We have had 2 sets of hearing tests this year. The first one was a pure tone test where she had to put a peg in a board everytime she heard a sound. They also checked her ears for fluid etc. The second one they did loads of tests, OAE test (same as newborn hearing screening), pure tone, speech discrimination where words are said through speaker and child has to point to correct picture in a book then background noise is added and volume is decreased to test hearing further, bone conduction where sound is sent via the bones rather than the ear (child has to wear a headset type thing) and her ears were then tested separately using headphones.

None of the tests hurt but they do require the child to co-operate with the audiologist.

Good luck!

[geogteach]

Definitely doing the right thing getting hearing checked. Nobody thought my DS had a hearing problem at 2.5, he had the best speech of our post natal group, he was at nursery doing fine and DH is a paediatrician. We went through 3 different audiology departments as each time they tested him they couldn't believe the results were so poor and his speech so good. Turns out he is an amazing lipreader. He got hearing aids at 3.5 and now at nearly 12 he is waiting for cochlear implants. His hearing has continued to deteriorate. To put a more positive side he is confident and outgoing, attends mainstream school in top sets, and is currently being a stroppy teenager about his homework - totally normal!

[DeWe]

The main symptoms ds had before he got his first set of grommets at 20 months were continuous ear infections.
He either was on antibiotics, got an ear infection or coming down with an ear infection from about 3 months onwards. Made it quite easy to spot.

The second set of grommets he had after 8 ear drum perforations in about 2 months.

I think he's heading for the third set, although his main symptom now is not hearing. (has had 2 perforations in the last couple of months too) However I know to look out for it, and how he behaves when he can hear (after grommets) so I know what to look out for.
He can't hear when facing away from me, he likes to look at my face when telling me something important-will ask me to bend down so his face is next to mine, and the computer is turned up loud. He also finds crowds with a lot of background noise distressing.

Before he had grommets though, a lot of that I thought as his cute little quirks.

[motherofvikings]

Thanks all! :)

I've almost convinced myself he has a hearing problem now!

He's only ever had 1 ear ache to my knowledge so that's not a clue to what might be happening.
But...

He doesn't always respond - especially if you aren't in his line of sight. But then dh is very good at zoning out too!
He is really struggling to 'get' rhyming - not that unusually in a almost 4yo but he doesn't seem to hear the difference on the sounds?
He misheard something on tv (octonauts) he was asking what a 'sea pig' was but they were talking about a 'sea king'

Preschool said he can hear the difference between c and other sounds eg he can differentiate between cat and tat even though he says them the same.

I have no real idea what to think now but am v grateful for the descriptions of what to expect and your experiences! :)
Roll on his appointment and then we an find out what's happening!

[motherofvikings]

All clear :)

We went to his appointment at the children's hospital and he did everything they asked him to without a problem. He heard all the sounds of different pitch and volume and the glue ear test came out normal too.

This is all great but does now mean he has a lot of 'work' to do himself on making the missing sounds.

[hatchypom]

Simple home test for hearing issues is the LING sounds done at varying distances, behind the child so no lip reading. You say the sounds and then get the child to repeat, or if younger to drop a brick in a box. The sounds are oooh, aaah, ssssss, sh, eee, mmmm.

Those sounds cover the spectrum of speech and may help to highlight an issue. Do them next to the child, then a couple of metres away at normal speech level in a quiet place.