Glue ear? Speech delay in 22 mth old

[RedC83]

Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help.
After months of agonising over whether my little one is neurotypical, due to various behaviours and delays, I now believe at 22.5 months that she is.

However, despite coming on leaps and bounds in her understanding over the past 3 months, her speech delay persists. (NHS hearing screen came back normal).

She can say a handful of words (although she seldom adds to this very select list) but has difficulty enunciating and repeating.

Re: enunciation - Obviously 22 months you wouldn't expect clear articulation but I would say that hers is so bad that someone who doesn't know her would assume its just babble. What's more, she produces sound at the back of her mouth and sounds like someone who is deaf. (Hope that doesn't come across as offensive in any way).

Sometimes she gets it but as week goes by she loses it. For example, she said "all gone" a month ago like "ahh gaaah" but now she pronounces like "caah caaah".

The other day she started saying chicken (choo choo) and again uses the back of her mouth to make sound.

On repeating -- she's stubborn, so that's hard but i can sometimes get her to play a game of "can you say 'hiya!' and she'll say the word. What strikes me as unusual is that both 'mama' and 'dada' are always pronounced as "baba". Like she can't hear the difference.

I'm trying to see a specialist of course but given the current situation there are long delays. Just wondered if there was any advice from anyone? FYI - All her other social behaviour is absolutely fine, but she is quite 'shouty'.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Sorry Red I don't have any experience of Glue Ear. Was her hearing test recent? If not, you can self refer for a hearing test in most areas.

If she is diagnosed with Glue Ear you can join the National Deaf Children's Society which should be useful.

It might be worth doing the mchat test too as ASD can be associated with speech delay.

[RedC83]

thanks @JiltedJohnsJulie. Yes the hearing test was about 3 months ago but i will definitely see about a re-test.

Came out as low on mchat but there could of course be a multitude of things going on - thanks for the advice :-)

[luckyleeds]

Hi! Which hearing test came back as normal? The newborn screening? That doesn't capture all types of deafness unfortunately and my son's deafness (auditory neuropathy) was only diagnosed with a test called an ABR.
However, if her understanding is on track then she may just be taking her time with her vocalisations. If she had a hearing loss then I would assume her understanding would also be delayed.
But, if you're concerned about a hearing loss then self referring would probably be your best next step and the audiologists can run a series of tests to determine if glue ear is present or not

[luckyleeds]

Sorry, just saw her hearing test was recent. I think they would have picked up any glue ear at that test through the threshold levels she got, and through an ear examination

[RedC83]

Thanks @luckyleeds. Yes it was just a couple of months ago. Her understanding has been super slow too but she is finally getting there. I’d say she is about 6 months behind others her age. GP agreed with you that hearing test would have picked up any issues

[dimples76]

I would say though that glue ear can fluctuate so it could be possible to have a good result 3 months ago and have some hearing loss now. Still v young though so it could just take a bit longer to get clearer speech.