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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

How do I teach my toddler with glue ear to speak?

17 replies

Brambles34 · 02/04/2015 12:47

My 17 mo was diagnosed with glue ear yesterday. (Totally flat line on both ears but he does have hearing if you say his name etc). The hearing test came about after I raised concerns with my HV that he wasn't talking or understanding basic commands. Now we know what (hopefully) is causing his developmental delays I'm at a loss of where to go from here.

Should I talk louder?
Should I concentrate on a few basic words or sounds only, and repeat them intensively on a daily basis?
Should I clear the floor of all toys before doing speech training to get maximum concentration etc etc I just don't know where to start to help him.

His next appointment is in 3 months then is the wait to get an ENT appointment so could be months!

Any advice appreciated

OP posts:

Heels99 · 02/04/2015 12:53

Go private and get treatment quicker. My daughter had a minor issue we were seen by consultant in a week.
Arrange appointment with speech therapist. They will give you exercises to do at home.
Totally treatable and children I know who have had it are fine now

tumbletumble · 02/04/2015 12:56

I have two DC with glue ear, and I wouldn't worry too much tbh. If your DS has already been diagnosed he should have grommets in by the time he's 2, and he should catch up pretty quickly after that. Lots of children don't talk much before age 2, so he won't be far behind. If you still feel he's behind after he's had the grommets in for 6 months or so, you could have speech therapy.

You're lucky - mine were diagnosed much later!

Original poster

Brambles34 · 02/04/2015 13:14

Heels, how much was it to go private? (if you don't mind me asking)

OP posts:

Heels99 · 02/04/2015 13:25

Afraid I don't know as medical insurance paid.

Original poster

Brambles34 · 02/04/2015 13:36

We had to go private to sort out my sons plagio and cost £2,000! Eek! Not sure we can afford to go private again as we have just moved house and have baby no 2 on the way.

What activities did they give you to do at home?

OP posts:

Heels99 · 02/04/2015 13:51

Daily vocal exercises but was not anything to do with glue ear.

Billybo · 02/04/2015 14:05

I'm not an expert but have had 2 children with glue ear.

Make sure you cut out as much background noise as possible e.g. radio/tv/washing machine, especially when playing games to encourage his speech, but all the time as far as possible to so that he can hear you talking to him as you go about your daily routine

Speak face to face as sometimes children with glue ear compensate by lip reading.

Make sure you talk "normally" - i.e. clear but not so loudly or slowly that it distorts your speech.

Try to make it fun. Games I was given to do by a speech therapist included pulling favourite items out of a bag and then saying the word. You could also try actions a bit like 'Simon Says' e.g. clap hands, touch your nose

He is too young to join in with this at the moment but it may also help for you to clap out the syllables of words to make them clearer. For example my little one used to say bar war for baby wipes and far engine for fire engine and it really helped to clap ba-by-wipes, fi-re en-gine to realise all the sounds that were there.

You may find that your little ones hearing improves over the summer with less colds and germs about. This happened a lot. If this does happen just keep an eye out Oct/Nov time to check that the glue ear hasn't returned.

Hope this helps.

Original poster

Brambles34 · 02/04/2015 14:14

That's fantastic help thank you billybo! I hadn't even thought about background noise. The radio or TV is always on as I hate silence but they'll all be turned off now!

OP posts:

Heels99 · 02/04/2015 14:26

With my daughter, whose issue is not related to hearing, we have to pause the tv or background noise if we want to speak and talk when we are in the same room as eachother so no calling to eachother from other rooms, it is surprising how much we found we had been calling around the house.

Original poster

Brambles34 · 02/04/2015 14:55

I've just made a gp appointment for this afternoon (my Dr are rare and only do same day appointments!) I'll push for a ENT and SLT referral

OP posts:

jauntynomates · 02/04/2015 15:46

We have found special times very useful - take 5 minutes with no distractions, let child choose a game or toy, and play together. Try to keep attention, and comment on play, let child take lead, eg 'You're building a tower', letting child show you what they want to do next.

This factsheet includes some info on things like this, it's a weblink but should bring up a PDF open/save request. It's from the I Can website, for helping child communication.

Ferguson · 02/04/2015 17:15

I know it doesn't help with speech, but there are 'baby signing' groups that can help with early communication, that may ease frustrations. But obviously you want to do all you can to improve his hearing and then his speech.

Frusso · 02/04/2015 17:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ElleOhElle · 06/04/2015 21:47

apparently cranial osteopathy can help with glue ear, might be worth trying while u wait for his grommets. DD had her grommets done and adenoids out when she was 3.5. her hearing and pronunciation was pretty poor but improved almost over night after her Op. definitely cut out background noise and get his attention before you dpeak, I found both those things really helped.
good luck

DeeWe · 07/04/2015 14:26

Ds had glue ear, 2 flat lines and had grommets at 20 months (1st set anyway, currently on 3rd set)

We did some signing, and he actually taught himself to lip read. Nothing I tried to do, just he picked it up himself. he also taught himself to read using subtitles on DVDs.

He wasn't a bad talker even though he couldn't hear. It was more pronunciation issues for him though.

What I did do (when I realised) was make sure I spoke to him face to face, coming down to his level and often demonstrating too what he needed to do.

Biscuitless · 07/04/2015 15:14

I agree with the above tips. Removing background noise is really important. DS (slow to talk) was diagnosed with glue ear at 3.5 years. It took me ages to realise there was a hearing problem as he could understand and answer me one-on-one but spoke not a single word at nursery and they were complaining of behavioural difficulties, but it was the background noise there - he didn't have a clue what was going on. I realised also he was often guessing at home and missing a lot of detail. So if you remove radio it might make a big difference. However 17mo is still really little, many don't talk till later anyway.

Also I don't think the flat line on its own tells you how much hearing loss there is. With DS this was measured separately by playing beeps and getting him to pick toys out of basket when he heard them, with younger children I think they do a similar test with a puppet show, did you have this?

However even "mild" loss (which DS had) can be debilitating in noisy educational and pre school environments, you can listen to simulations on the internet and it is like hearing everything underwater or muffled at a great distance.

We had grommets done privately, paid for by medical insurance, but think it was quite pricey, £3500 or so. Haven't regretted it, DS has made huge leaps forward since. Look up local hospitals in your area. NHS view seems to be delay on basis most will grow out of it in the year or so it takes to get treatment, on the other hand there is an argument that otherwise one is intervening unnecessarily. You may be able to press for hearing aids as an alternative to grommets.

momtothree · 07/04/2015 15:29

Hi we were told to use olbas oil every night and after 3 night his ears exploded out the gunk .... pillow stuck to his face - worth trying. Speech wise there are books available - worth a look - but face to face helps as does questions needing answer - juice or milk? And wait till he answers - nightmare if u have older DC who ans for them.

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