Is this worth getting checked - 19 month old speech/hearing

[minipie]

DD2 is 19 months. She definitely wants to talk and has quite a lot of "words" but they are pretty unclear, other people wouldn't recognise what she was trying to say except in a few cases. If you say a word to her she will try to repeat it but will make quite a different sound.

She's had a lot of bad colds/viruses (snot coming out of her eyes (sorry!), terrible cough, bronchiolitis twice etc). Historically there has been glue ear and grommets on both sides of the family though not DH or me. So, I'm worried she may have some degree of glue ear/hearing issues.

However, I'm not sure if (1) this is actually totally normal - DD1 had very clear speech at this age but perhaps she was unusual? and (2) is it too early to do any sort of reliable hearing test anyway?

In other words is it worth taking her to the GP/HV or not.

Any thoughts welcome!

[Swirlingasong]

I'd take her to see the hv. I think it's quite normal for speech to be unclear at this age, but no one can really say without hearing how different her sounds are. If you are worried, it's always better to do something sooner than later. All gp s and hvs have always said to me they'd prefer to see a child than miss a problem.

[minipie]

Thanks Swirling! HV is slightly tricky as they only do clinics on Thursdays and I work then... but is the HV better than the GP for this kind of thing do you think?

[Swirlingasong]

It depends, in my case I think my hv is far more clued up about these things than my gp, purely because she sees babies and toddlers all the time, but I know I have a very good hv and that others are more, um, variable. If you can't get to the clinic, they might do a home visit? A friend of mine went to ours with language concerns and she wanted to do a home visit anyway as the clinic was so noisy!

[Poseyrose11]

Hi, my little boy is 20 months and similar. For a long while I was worried he wasn't talking enough and now he is talking a fair bit I'm worried that his words aren't clear enough. I called my health visitor just before he turned 18 months and she was brilliant, came to the house to see him and give me advice. She said that although he wouldn't be referred for speech therapy until after he was 2 for unclear speech that she would refer him for a hearing test just to be sure and that she would stay in touch with me to keep an eye on the situation. I don't think he does have a hearing problem as he understands what we say and can hear quiet noises, he will say nee naw if he hears a siren in the background for example. However some of the words he uses are just nothing like words we would use, for example he says ma when he wants to be picked up, mea for dummy, I only know what the words are because I'm with him often.

[AlmaMartyr]

I'd go to the GP. Her unclear sounds don't sound particularly unusual but they can do hearing tests at that age (at an audiology department). Better to get on waiting lists etc sooner rather than later. I think glue ear can have a genetic component - I had it badly, so did DS and my consultant said it can run in families.

[minipie]

Ak ok, I will call the HVs and see what they say about appointments on other days or a home visit. I do have one very good HV who I'd see ideally (unfortunately there's also one I really don't rate!).

The family history is that my MIL, BIL and my cousin all had glue ear and grommets. So both sides. DD's cousin (BIL's daughter) also has very unclear speech, still quite unclear at age 4 tbh, though I presume they've had hearing checked. DD did fail her initial hearing test when newborn now I think about it, though she passed when we were called back for a second test at audiology (at a week or so old).

Hadn't realised about the waiting list - definitely sounds worth getting on to it now in that case.

Thanks everyone