Been told DS may have hearing problems but I've always had niggles about poss ASD type behaviours?

[PrincessSmartipants]

DS is 4.5. He is bright and doing well academically with a reading age a couple of years ahead of his actual age. I've never had any concerns about his hearing - he can hear very quiet noises and passed his newborn hearing screening. But a school hearing test last week has resulted in us being sent a letter saying he couldn't hear some of the sounds and that they were repeating it next week. I'm waiting for the school nurse to ring me back now because this has set off some alarm bells for me.

Since being very very small, he has HATED any kind of unstructured group setting. I had to stop taking him to nearly all baby/toddler groups at about 2.5 because he just didn't cope. He'd be fine for maybe 10-15 minutes but then he would get red and hot, his eyes would almost glaze a little, and he would start behaving in a rather frantic/manic way. I'm starting to wonder if this might be down to noise levels, something I'd never considered before.

He learned to talk very early and has always spoken clearly. BUT, since learning to read, he has started to 'overpronounce' words (even familiar ones), so that every letter is very clearly enunciated, almost like seeing them written down has made him think he's been saying them wrong? Maybe this is just a quirk or a normal stage of learning phonics though.

He has always liked to make noises (verbal ones or banging/hitting things to make a noise), often repeatedly, and also repeats himself over and over and over even when he's had an answer.

He also tends to speak really really unnecessarily loudly during conversations, despite us working hard to help him quiet down a bit. He'll tone it down for maybe 5/6 words then start yelling again, even though we remind him numerous times a day and have done for about 2 years!

Oh and he interrupts CONSTANTLY, again we remind him every time and he is frequently told to wait until the person has finished what they are saying before he speaks. But its like he just doesn't notice that you were already speaking.

So... I've always had niggling thoughts about possible ASD - there are more quirks to him that I haven't listed here as trying to keep it relevant to speech/hearing/noise. But could a possible hearing issue cause these behaviours? What might we be looking at? Or am I (as DP thinks) overreacting and looking for problems...?

Oh and the other thing is, when he gets a bit frantic (groups, playtimes, birthday parties etc), he clearly struggles to take in what I say to him even if I do the whole "bend down to his level, look him in the face, speak clearly" thing.

Thanks for replying

Nope, no referral, just been told they will repeat the tests next week?

I'd never even considered hearing problems, or that they could present similarly to ASD. But it makes absolute sense, just thinking about it I can see that it would explain a lot of DS's more puzzling behaviour and struggles.

Ds has glue ear. There are times when his hearing is close to zero.

However except for certain things that I now know to look out for, I can't tell because he compensates so well.

It's very little things. Like him watching the computer with the sound a bit higher-or off, the way he behaves with a particularly loud noise, a particular way he holds his head. But I wouldn't notice them if I hadn't (over 7 years) got used to looking out for them.

It's fairly standard for a child to compensate well enough for their parent not to know. And the behaviour can be very similar to ASD.

One thing I had with ds. When he was tiny, if he wanted to talk just to me, he wanted to be picked up, and would turn my face to face his. I thought this was just to make sure I was giving him my complete attention-he was dc3 after all . Cute little habit, but never thought anything of it.
He had grommets in at 20 months, and grew out of that habit.
When he was about 3yo he started patting my cheek again to turn my head to face him, and I commented to dh that he'd obviously remembered doing it, and wasn't it sweet.
Then at ENT they told me he was actually turning my face so he could lip read me and he had very little hearing.
And hey presto, next set of grommets in and he stopped doing it again.

Ds passed his newborn screening fine.

He also behaved like you describe in loud noise for a long time. If he was invited to a party I used to explain to the hosts that he'd only cope with 30 minutes of the running around time before he went haywire, so could we come late. People were really happy I'd explained rather than bringing him and letting it happen.

Wow. Thanks for the replies - they have been really helpful and I am going to push for further investigations. The reaction you describe to loud noisy environments is DS all over DeWe

I can't believe I've never thought of it tbh.

And yes DS has been though phases of face turning. I now feel really shitty because I have a real hatred of anyone touching my face (long story) so told him not to do it

Really don't worry about it. I'm sure I told ds on a few occasions that he had to wait until I'd finished talking to someone else. It didn't seem more than a rather cute habit, and I thought it was just him trying to make sure all my attention was on him not his siblings.

He also liked being carried around until much older than the others which again I think was due to him then being close to my mouth. He would ask to be carried home from school until he was year 2, and I had to refuse him due to weight/my back.