Glue Ear and Behaviour Problems

[jerikaka]

I have heard that glue ear can cause behaviour problems. Has anyone out there experienced this and if so what sort of behaviour were their children exhibiting? My ds has developed an extreme reaction to the noise of other children, his speech development is not what I expected (but that could be normal, I'm not sure) and he is always clutching his ears. I thought that the problem would get better if i exposed him to other children, but it's just getting worse. Any experince of this would be much appreciated.

How old is he? Do you have other concerns?

My ds used to be hypersensitive to noise - too much totally freaked him, whether it was musical, mechanical or speech. His language development was early and extremely good, but his speech was so unclear that long after he was capable of holding a complex conversation in full sentences, most adults still treated him as a pre-verbal child.

When he was 3 he had a series of episodes of glue-ear which reduced his hearing and, on the one hand he couldn't hear us, but on the other hand the world became a less noisy and therefore less scarey place for him.

We learned that we needed to respect his need for peace and quiet, and not force him to endure loud noises. Gradually we encouraged him to tolerate noise, with strategies like letting him put his hands over his ears while we held him so that he felt secure and encouraging him to look at the source of the noise. We also made sure to treat the glue ear and to make eye-to-eye contact before speaking to ensure that he knew to pay attention.

If you have concerns over your ds's hearing, ask your HV to test it as a first step.

He was two on monday. I have raised this with my health visitor. I have been talking to them for the past year about concerns I have with him, but it's only when I got to breaking point that they acknowledged that there was a problem. I don't know whether it is emotional or physical. It may be a bit of both. His is talking, has been for about two months. He can say "gone", "done" and "bye", but most other words he only says once and then never says them again. I can believe that this is normal for some children, but he has always been very sensitive to noise, and I just think that there must be an underlying cause. He has always had a thing for holding his ears and being sensitive to his surroundings. Then it turned into him crying whenever he heard a baby crying, and then he cried at the slightest noise that they made. That started about a year ago. Now he has reached the terrible twos he's becoming increasingly aggressive to other children and hitting them whenever they make a sound. It's really hard to know what to do with him. I have tried ignoring it, I have tried reassuring him, but nothing seems to help. I have always tried to have an active social life with him but it's becoming very difficult. I have spoken to someone else who is quite experienced in child development and she has said that his behaviour isn't normal, and that she thinks that he is in pain, but it's taking ages for an audiology appointment to come through, and I feel so frustrated because I don't know how to help him! I am quie desperate to get this sorted before January when our next baby is due. I was hoping he would grow out of this by now, but it's just gettting worse, and I can't imagine how stressful life is going to be when the baby is here.

All three of my children have suffered from glue ear. Both of the boys pretty severely.

Ds1 was very sensitive to noise, didn't cope well at mothers and toddlers, lashing out and being generally aggressive. He was ok in a quiet environment, speech mildly affected but he had learned to lip read and would hold your chin so that you were looking at him when you spoke. He had tonsils and adenoids removed and grommits put in at 3.

Dd also had problems but didn't have surgery as she has another chronic condition which makes a GA risky. She is still senstive to noise and we can't shop at our local Sainsburys because she can hear a high pitched noise all the time which is emitting from their tannoy system !?!

Ds2 was the most severly affected. He barely slept, had night terrors and episodes of headbanging. The headbanging continued during the day and he had almighty tantrums, and aggressive behaviour. His speech was very poor up until he had surgery at 3. He hardly ate and was a very frustrated, angry child. Looking back I do think he was in pain most of the time.

We were concerned that ds2 was possibly autistic (his cousin has aspergers) and we were awaiting a referral but following his surgery he improved dramatically. I now feel that his other oddities at the time - mainly obsessive behaviour - was related to the arrival of his sick little sister and my long absences. He was very insecure

Does he point jerikaka? How does he communicate what he wants/what interests him?

He does point not as much as I would expect of a toddler I must say. He can communicate what he wants, usually thats by dragging you over to what it is he wants. Does it sound like something you've experienced then?

Forgot to mention that one of the health visitors recommended I try giving him a biscuit to calm him down when he gets upset by noise, but I hasten to add that he is inconsolable with the noise and anything that is already in his mouth tends to fall out!

What does he do when he's dragged you over? My son for example would put your hand on the thing he wanted (it's better if they point!) Your ds still very little but some of the things you mentioned can go with a communication disorder. When my son who has a comunication disorder was 2 oneof his best friends had very bad glue ear, and they showed similar but different behaviour iyswim.

Do you have a date for audiology yet?It might be worth asking for a referral to a developmental paed or your local CDC (child development centre- that's possibly where he'll go for audiology anyway) just in case audiology says that glue ear is not helping, but not the whole problem iyswim. If after your audiology appointment you find out that hearing is the whole problem (and it could quite easily be- hard to tell in little ones) you could easily cancel the other appointment(s). We wasted over a year on various waiting lists so I tend to advise people these days to get referrals to any potential problem early and then just cancel if not needed (rather than wait to see of they are definitely needed).

You could ask your HV to administer the CHAT test as well- that's a good screening tool for comunication disorders- very easy to do, but gives an idea of which children need to be referred on for further assesment (and of course which don't).

Does he ever show you things that interest him? How's his play?

I can sympathise with the slow audiology appointments. I began to have concerns about my DS at 2 and he was finally diagnosed with glue ear and a sensoral neural loss at 3.5. He has grommets (when they haven'y fallen out) and hearing aids now. I just wanted to say that my DS had normal speech and did not experience pain, so I would definately follow this through if you think there is a problem, I am now very glad I followed my gut instict. There is a message board on the national deaf childrens society website called parent place whicg has a large section on glue ear

He's not great at playing. He'd much rather watch tv all day, but I do try and encourage him to play with things. Some days he's really interested, other days he throws a fit whenever i turn the tv off. I can't think of any occasions when he has shown me things that he is interested in. I find it hard to find anything that interests him, though he's really into trains at the moment, and we have found a couple of science centres around here that he really loves going to.
We haven't found out when his hearing test is yet. One of the health visitors said that he should be seen within a month, but that was two weeks ago. Been trying to get hold of the HV today but was her day off. She is going to refer him to a team of people to give him the once over in every aspect, i.e. phsyio, pdeatricians, etc, but she doesn't know when that will be. It's so distressing when you know that there is something wrong but not knowing how to fix it. What is the CHAT test? He had his two year check and they put down observe for hearing, behaviour and speech, but everything else was ok.

The CHAT test looks at a child ability to prodce a point, follow a point and take part in imaginative play. If they "fail" on these then it suggests that they should be assessed for a communication disorder. It takes about 5 minutes to do- your HV should be able to do it (actually you could do it yourself- but I haven't got a link to hand and am being hassled by dh to go and eat). I would advise covering yourself and getting referals even if you cancel
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Sorry this is rushed am being shouted at!

Here's a link for the CHAT test.

www.paains.org.uk/autism/chat.htm

My son had chronic glue ear since he was under 1 until he had grommets inserted at 3. He has behavioural problems similar to Potty's son and is still extremely sensitive to noise (often covers his ears because of traffic noise). He has impaired hearing and some speech delay (despite having had grommets for over a year now). For what it's worth, my ds wouldn't watch tv before his op. - too boring without sound! and will only manage 10mins now.

I agree with Jimjams, try the CHAT test..glue ear may be all or part of the problem. Hope you get to see audiology soon (think it took us 3 months for an appointment)..don't get fobbed off by 'distraction hearing tests' - they are useless...you need a test using proper measuring equipment and a tympanogram for glue ear.
One thing that was simple that the audiologist did was to ask ds to 'put the spoon in the cup' - which he did......then she covered her mouth and asked him to do it again....he had no idea what she had said..he had been lip-reading. You could try that at home.

back! having eaten. please don;t be too concerned by the CHAT test- it is for screenng not diagnosing.

Deafness and communication disorders do produce similar type behaviours when children are little (usually because of frustration). I just met someone this week whose son is rising 3. She has been waiting on hearing tests etc all year- had grommets- he stil has the problems and now she's blaming herself for not pushing for further invesitagtions (not her fault at all). So I'd just advise investigating all possible avenues at once (we had all the hearing test stuff done as well- it;s important to do, but just not to be the only thing considered iyswim).

Thanks guys. Just had the HV on the phone. She said that it's normally 3 months for an audiology appointment, but she has marked it as very urgent and that i will accept a cancellation. She is also going to talk to him at her next meeting to try and get him referred. Finally feel like i have the right people on my side.
Is pointing a natural thing for toddlers to do then? He does point at things if I teach him to, but he doesn't do out of natural curiosity.

Hi jerikaka- your HV sounds good- that always helps.

Pointing is important- especially pointing out things of interest as it indicates that language development is proceeding as it should do. Being able to follow a point is important as well. DS1 never really got that- we'd shout "ooh look" and he's just be looking in the wrong direction, not even trying to see what we were pointing to- he just didn't "get" the whole thing iyswim.

I think my HV is being pushed by a woman at the community centre who seems to have taken up my cause. They even have a plan B if we don't get anywhere with plan A! It does feel great to know that poeple are taking me seriously, especially as my family are not really local.
We have a lot of helicopters flying over our area and when we ask where they are, he does point in the sky, but he doesn't really point much other than that. When you ask where things are he doesn't point and show you. I don't know whether he can hear properly. It takes calling his name a few times before he will turn round to acknowledge you, I thought that was normal for toddlers. My head is spinning with all this, and i don't know what is normal or not any more. I know that he can hear some things, but he is also so sensitive to other noises. The lady at the community centre has offered to video my ds so that when i do get my appointment i can show this to the doctors, which i think will help explain things. When he is on his own he's fine, but with other children it's like he anticipates the noise that they make and is instantly clutching his ears, and then when they do make a noise he starts crying and screaming. I never thought having kids would be this complicated!

Jim Jams, what sort of communication disorder does your ds have? I have been noticing other children today, and my ds really doesn't point at all now i look for it. Starting to get concerned!

jerikaka- my son is autistic. I've been avoiding mentioning him because your story doesn't really remind me of ds1 as such. At this stage I just thought of the woman I'd come across this week who has been waiting and waiting and waiting and sent down the garden path with respect to glue ear. Her son hasn't been assessed for anything else yet- but they do now think it isn't just glue ear- something else is going on. It sounds like they now need to rule out communication disorders- when of course it would have been better to rule it out a year ago.

We never suspected glue ear, but were sent down a garden path with verbal dyspraxia (we were told that our son definitely wasn't autistic). It just led to a wasted year (and not a very happy one as we didn't really know what was going on).

Please don't think that I am reading your messages and thinking your son is autistic- at 2 my son was quite similar to his friend with severe glue ear. I just think that it is best to get every possibility examined and looked at (or at least future appointments made) so that there's no chance of being left high and dry when you need help.

I have a ds3 now who is 8 months. If I ever have any concern about him- however mild my concern- I will be getting him referred left right and centre. (ds2 was a late talker- I knew he wasn't autistic- biut still got him referred to speech therapy- by the time he was seen he didn't need it- but I;m pleased I didn't hang around in case it had been the other way round).

Your HV etc do sound good, and it is good that your son points at helicopters etc. At 6, my son kind of gestures towards things (sometimes) if we ask him where something is, but I wouldn't really call it pointing. And for year he would point in any old random direction- he didn't seem to underatand that it had to be in the direction of the object.

Thanks Jimjams, I think he is just a late developer. From what you have described, my ds is very different. I will get him checked out as soon as possible though as these things do take such a long time.
My ds obviously had a bit of a thing about crying babies, but whether that has led onto more of a serious thing with noise I don't really know. I think I will take him to the doctors on monday, the antibiotics don't seem to have made any difference.

Quick hijack here jerikaka....sorry

jimjams - maybe you could answer me a quick question? One of the things that set off alarm bells for my HV at the time was that if ds2 had something in his hand and you asked 'ds2, what's that in your hand?' he would look at his empty hand. I'd say 'no, your other hand' and he would switch the toy and still look at the empty hand.

I was never sure of the relevance (if any) and she couldn't explain why she felt it unusual. She just felt that something wasn't quite right. I couldn't tell you whether he pointed at that time (do children with autisim learn to point or does that never happen?)

Ds2 is 14 so there was no info easily accesible to me at that time (oh to have had mumsnet )As I said further down he improved greatly in lots of ways following his surgery although he still has some 'Josh-ism's' which we muddle along with. Just interested really......

jerikaka - hope you get your audiology appointment soon. It's horrible having to wait when you're worried.

potty1- sounds to me like a straight language delay- he was understanding "hand" and "other hand", and nothing else. Of course that would go with glue ear.

It's often very difficult to tell how much a child understands without testing. DS1's situational understanding was always good- he would follow simple instructions, point when asked etc and we completely misjudged how much he understood. It was only when he was tested at 3 that we discovered that he pretty much only understood nouns and nothing else. He had a very good noun vocabulary- but that was it.

Thanks jimjams

Hi Jerikaka, as a slight aside can I ask if you've tried visiting a cranial osteopath. I've had to take my son since birth and i really believe that this can help with many early ailments. If you are interested you can find out more info at www.cranial.org.uk/ and also find a pratitioner from there-its really worth a visit. All the best xx

Ladies/gents - I need your help. My 10 month old son has 'no reading' in his left ear and 'enough lack of hearing to warrant referral alone' in his right ear, likely diagnosis - fluid in middle ear. He has had colds and snuffliness more or less since birth and one hospital stay due to difficult breathing. On the plus side he is a bruiser and for the last 5 months a happy little bod. His referral to the surgeon is a long time coming (still no sign and this is a minimum of 3 months and I have chased), your comments on autism links, behavioural problems and misdiagnosis have freaked me out. Should I just call up the hospital every day or go private? His 2 year old brother is bright and has a wide vocab and I don't want the little guy to miss out. Help, advice and sharing of experience appreciated!