To wonder if son has difficulty hearing when he's ok at school?

[SpudtheScarecrow]

Or, in other words, is he just ignoring me?

Obviously not expecting people to diagnose on the Internet and I will get him checked but was curious about others' experience.

DS is 8 and is going through a phase of being quite grumpy - when he's good he's lovely and when he's not, he's really not!! He ignores instructions a lot and DH and I get cross about having to keep repeating ourselves. Anyway, this morning, as I turned the tv down for the hundredth time I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and wondered if he has problems hearing. There's some history of hearing problems in both our families and I had glue ear as a child.

Mentioned it to his teacher and she hasn't noticed anything but I just wondered, could it be possible that he's concentrating really hard at school etc so that no one notices a problem and then is tired and grumpy at home and 'switches off'? I know when I had hearing problems no one noticed at all until a routine test showed I had almost no hearing at the top end of the range.

Thanks if you've stuck with me this far.

Go with your judgement. If you think he's not hearing things properly it won't hurt to get his ears tested. If they turn out to be working perfectly then you go with a different idea. Process of elimination.

Watching with interest. I have 3 DS's who don't listen to me..... I'm a bit as I'd never even thought about their hearing. I just assume they aren't listening!!

My ds has intermittent glue ear so regularly has problems hearing. Every year I tell his teachers when this is happening (usually related to an ear infection). They always say they've never noticed a problem - partly cause he's learnt ways to compensate, partly cause, well, they're busy and there are 30 kids in the class.

I had my 'lightbulb' moment when a friend was telling me how bad she felt about telling her ds off for saying 'what?' all the time, then finding he had glue ear and I thought 'gosh, ds11 does that too'

Sorry - ds1 (now aged 8)

My dd2 had a very bad hearing problem which has been solved by grommets and removal of adenoids.

Her schoolwork remained very good, but if you looked closely at her test results, she scored less well on anything that needed listening comprehension. Her average over the year fell by just 5% but this was significant for her.

The teachers hadn't noticed anything. She had more then 70 db hearing loss at some frequencies.

Only her piano teacher noticed a problem - but he thought she was hyperactive because she wouldn't listen to him!

Thanks for the replies - Spaghettio - that's what I have been assuming it was only when I noticed this morning just now loud he had the tv on that I started to wonder.

Will see what happens - think he's going though some practice for being a teen so probably just ignoring me. Will get it checked tho

Hearing loss with glue ear can be patchy, and kids can often hear enough to get by, but not enough to excel. I know a girl who got to 15 before anyone noticed she was completely deaf in one ear.

I'd speak to the doctor about your concerns and get a hearing test. He's probably well within the range of normal (and therefore they wouldn't advocate any treatment) and so much treatment relating to glue ear is on a watch and wait basis, that you need to be in the system, IYSWIM.

My eldest had repeated ear infections and glue ear which resulted in her having grommets.

I'd also assumed she wasn't listening to me and no one at school had noticed any hearing loss either.

It was afterwards penny dropped.

I remember sitting in the kitchen with her one day after the op and the boiler clicked on, it completely freaked her out as she'd never heard it before. I couldn't use the tumble dryer after she'd gone to bed anymore and the noise disturbed her

My hearing range is fine on a simple hearing test, but I have problems filtering background noise. I lip read a lot- I only notice when I can't. I seem to have a delay in processing speech- by the time I've asked someone to repeat it, and they're halfway through, I've filled in the blanks.

I can be selectively deaf- I know when it's really not worthwhile getting someone to repeat something continually, so it's easier to go deaf on them. Either that or I have to go right up to them.

I did well at school, except in French listening. Oh how I loved handing the letter from the ENT consultant for headphones in my A-level exam as he hadn't believed I was struggling and called me a liar when I said my hearing was bad. (I'd had a badly perforated eardrum that year through infection).

Thanks for all these responses - was expecting one or two at most - you've made me feel like I'm not being neurotic even if I'm wrong.

MrsMook - it was music I struggled with and everyone just assumed I wasa a really bad singer which I am as well but in fact I couldn't hear music properly to be able to follow it.

I had grommets at 11 and am really sensitive to background noise etc - I can still hear but find it really irritating.

Thanks again

A friend's daughter has bad glue ear, turns out she was lip reading in school! Because the teacher had them facing the front when explaining the activity, she'd lip read, guess and read instructions... but speak to her from behind/side, and she didn't respond.

Did clear up by itself somewhat, but she is still on list for grommits so if not cleared by the time her name comes up she'll hopefully hear much better after that.

You could try this hearng test.