To ignore son's claims about not being able to hear?

[SpinningTopps]

Ds is 5 and has started to say he can't hear properly. He says he thinks he is deaf. But if I whisper he appears to hear everything I say. I think his hearing is fine.
I've looked into children's hearing tests and it seems you need a referral which seems a step too far.
AIBU to just assume all is fine or can you have hearing loss where you can hear whispers but other things are affected?

You won't get an APD investigation until you have established that his hearing is within normal limits.

Nosiy car or busy classroom isn't an issue for me. Again whispering only checks one specific bit of hearing and isn't a conclusive test. The issue may be certain frequencies or it may be intermittent. Talking to someone in a busy shop or restaurant is an issue for me as is hearing the TV in a busy show. I have no trouble hearing the kids whispering things to each other in the back of the car. Id get a test done to rule it out and get his ears physically checked by a GP to rule out things like wax and glue ear if that's something GP can check for. Maybe he can hear fine and its just an excuse or happens when he's zoned out, but hearing is too important to just leave it because he can hear a whisper.

As PP said you'll need his hearing checked before you can get APD looked into.

A lot of the posts, especially talking about the whispering sounded like you were just being dismissive and not taking this seriously. This post sounds like you're a bit overwhelmed and you need to take a moment before you jump back in and that's ok. Having ND kids, therapy, getting diagnoses, its a marathon not a sprint. It's important you look after your own physical and mental health so you can get your DS the things he needs. If you need to not think about it and take a bit of a break then do that.

Pleeeease OP, make sure that his hearing is assessed alongside autism. There is a recent history of NHS misdiagnosis related to hearing problems and autism. National deaf childrens society is a fab resource for advice.

Try not to think of it as ‘one thing after another’ - think of more like you are currently at the stage of collecting all the puzzle pieces to help you understand the nature your sons difficulties.

Both my DS’s are autistic and it was the same with both of them - many many varied and different appointments, seemingly unconnected issues which actually all then made perfect sense when it came time for their ASD assessments - constipation, hearing differences, eating, weight, it all was part of the bigger picture.

To update: I spoke to the GP. It turns out he had had a hearing test at school a few weeks ago (which I had been completely unaware of).

He had it recorded that his hearing is all as it should be. Bit embarrassing to be told he's just had a hearing test!!

Perhaps just a processing issue in noisy environments and part of the bigger picture. I'll keep an eye on it over the coming months / years.

That's great news! At least now you know 🙂

That's good that you've eliminated that, now you know what you are dealing with. Good luck, keep advocating for him

This. Always start with the obvious, please take your son to the GP so any physical barriers to hearing are identified before even thinking about other diagnoses. I'm baffled that you'd hesitate to check.

It's interesting he's just had a test.

I'm wondering if he's made a connection somewhere about "hearing test" and "trouble hearing" and has connected dots and convinced himself he can't hear properly so he had a test?

My ds is autistic and that's the sort of tangent and random conclusion he'd make of things as a child 👀😂🙄

Get him checked, My dd didn’t show any signs of having hearing problems until she was 6, one of her teachers called me to tell me she thought dd was having troubling with her hearing. She was referred to the hospital audiology dept for more in depth tests and a scan.
Shes totally deaf in one ear. We think nerve damage from mumps caused it. She contracted mumps before she had the vaccine.
I wear hearing aids, I didn’t think I needed them until I actually got them fitted.

Had this recently with DS. His turned out to be an ear infection in one ear. He can hear perfectly now the infection has gone. I’m sure the GP wouldn’t mind seeing your DC. just tell the GP what you’ve told us x

They are definitely checked in our area. The nurses were in yesterday doing rechecks.

She said that they are noticing a massive increase in both rechecks and then referrals. This will no doubt translate into increased waiting times for ENT appointments.

I really would still push for a full audiology referral and get a full hearing test. Like I said in my post the school hearing test never picked up my son’s hearing issues. Like I said I’m my post his hearing was bad and needed hearing aids