What would make someone seem more deaf than they really are?

[elliejjtiny]

Ds3 had glue ear from the age of about 3. The drs kept saying it wasn't that bad, wait and see etc but he had all the symptoms and was really struggling. I was begging for him to have grommets or hearing aids and finally aged 7 he got grommets which made a difference but wasn't the miracle I was expecting. 5 years later the school said they thought he had autism and adhd and everything started to make sense about why he was struggling so much, it wasn't that he physically couldn't hear, it was his brain was struggling to listen.

Ds4 was diagnosed with glue ear just after his first birthday. He had grommets and they were a miracle. He had a second set and then hearing aids. Recently he had a hearing test which showed his hearing had improved slightly in one ear so his teacher of the deaf was taken away from him and one of his hearing aids was turned down. His diagnosis is mild conductive hearing loss but he considers his hearing loss to be his main disability. The professionals consider his main disability (or primary need, they call it) to be his moderate learning disabilities. DS4 is now really struggling with his hearing. Audiology won't test his hearing again until September. I'm wondering if he has something else that is causing him to appear more deaf than he really is. An ed psych said years ago that she thought he might have dyspraxia but he couldn't be assessed accurately because of his learning disabilities and we should just treat him as if he has dyspraxia. I don't know how to help ds4 with his hearing. He is really struggling but his most recent hearing test shows his hearing loss is mild in one ear and at the low end of normal in the other ear.

Difficulty paying attention to people.
A lot can depend on where the hearing loss is across the sound range. E.g., does it affect the area which is the natural pitch of some people but not others? Does he find it easier to listen to men rather than women (could be the frequency/pitch of the voice)?

Lots of dyspraxics have an audio processing delay/difficulty.

Sensory processing disorder?

Auditory processing disorder, add, ear infection or sinusitis?

Auditory Processing Disorder is common in neurodivergents.

I have bilateral hearing problems but it's my auditory processing disorder which screws everything right up.

im a parent of three children. Two had hearing problems. One whom one had grommets and went on to have years of hearing problems and recurrent operations due to them (they were done privately) and another child with glue ear which had rectified itself by the time they were 7 and never needed them in the end despite the suggestion of a private ent surgeon ( he was being paid to assess oldest child at the time)

Can you get him a second opinion . If he was noticeably better before they turned his aid down get it turned back up - is this something you can do yourself . Our eldest is moderately deaf , diagnosed at 6/7 , no glue ear . We had private ITC aids so basically did as we pleased although he took them out at school 90% of the time and refused to wear them at home ever . Mine had taught himself to lip read very effectively by the time he was diagnosed and preferred to rely on that .

I'm deaf. Severe hearing loss of 76dcb in my "good" ear (can't remember the dcb in my not so good ear). My hearing loss is progressive and I will more than likely be completely deaf at some point. I started wearing hearing aids about 5 years ago. Should have had them from at least about 18 years ago.

Have had hearing problems all my life - grommets as a child etc. My Grandad was deaf and my DD has the gene for hearing loss.

Two things make me appear "deaf-er than I am".

I rely on lip reading. Even with my hearing aids in and when I can actually hear people. It's like my brain connects the sound with the lip movement and I need both to process the words. Only became aware that it was an issue during the mask phase of Covid. I kept saying "excuse me/pardon/can you repeat that?" even when I was wearing my aids. Had another hearing check in case I was losing more hearing. The Audiologist said she'd had a lot of people with the same issue and explained the lip reading/audio processing to me.

The other is auditory processing delay. This hasn't been formally diagnosed (yet). My brain works extra hard to hear sounds so it takes longer to process what those sounds mean. It's instantaneous with people who have no issues with their hearing but it takes me a second to catch up. I have to be really paying attention to someone to follow the conversation. If someone talks to me when, for example, I'm reading or cooking it takes me a bit to realise they are talking to me. It's like my brain can only focus on one task at a time when it comes to hearing (I have ADHD so I'm usually focusing on several lol).

My niece has APD (Auditory Processing Disorder), she also has an imbalance between hearing levels in her ears, this is only mild and comes within 'normal ranges' but it causes massive problems, she also has ADHD and developmental language delay. She lives in Portsmouth and the NHS in her area provided low grade hearing aids and a radio aid for her as recommended in her reports, this is a rarity though, you normally have to purchase them privately. This has massively helped at school as well as school following all the suggestions highlighted in her report. My dad, who has a high frequency hearing loss also has APD and was not diagnosed till he was 70. I highly suspect that my youngest has APD, hearing is clear but the wait list for diagnosis is ridiculous and private is not an option due to cost.