27 month old with Glue Ear and not talking

[Nujo]

We have a 27 month old who almost exclusively talks in babble still. If asked she'll say 'mamma' and 'dadda', and can make 5 animal noises (meow, hiss, baa, a whispered growl for a lion and a sniffing noise for a dog) but doesn't get say the animals names. She said 'dis' when pointing to something she wants (her version of 'this') and she'll sometimes say 'aye' for bye. I think she understands quite a lot and often follows instructions (unless she's decided it's something she doesn't want to do!). Our health visitor is a bit concerned and put in a referral for a hearing test in January, just to rule out hearing problems as a cause for lack of speech, we had it last week. The Audiology staff told us there was nothing wrong with the mechanics of her hearing and that she hears fine. They then went on to say she had glue ear in both ears, but that this would only affect her if she was in a very noisy room where it might be hard to hear her name being called. But they said that ultimately her lack of speech was not connected to her hearing. I felt a bit perplexed that they could say that with certainty, but obviously I'm not the expert here! When we told our nursery they said in response that in their experience, a case of glue ear definitely COULD lead to communication issues. So I'm not sure what to think and am feeling a bit drained.

Does anyone else have a LO who wasn't yet speaking at 27 months?

And does anyone have experience where glue ear did turn out to be a contributing factor to communication delays?

She was a fairly late crawler (13 months) and walker (18 months) and we've always tried to keep the attitude of she'll do it in her own time. But it's difficult when you get different organisations saying opposing things.

Thanks so much!

Hi, this isn't my own personal experience but my friend has a little boy who was barely saying anything at that age. He was using some basic sign language to communicate but that was all. She was worried he had a speech delay but it turned out he had glue ear.

He got grommets inserted and his speech picked up rapidly after that. The change in him was unbelievable. He is now almost 4 and doing wonderfully.

I obviously am not a doctor and I've no idea if you can have glue ear of different levels of severity etc. But I have definitely known glue ear to be a factor in lack of speech.

Push for your baby. Watch and wait time has gone. Either she needs ENT input and hearing aids/grommets or she needs speech tx. She may well catch up on her own but the older she gets the less likely that is. At almost 2.5 I wouldn't be fobbed off with watch and wait any longer. Nit talking by 2 isn't so concerning but by 3 as a clinician I'd be worried if a child wasn't basically conversational. Good luck xx

Thanks so much for your reply CP2701, I'm grateful for any anecdotal cases where circumstances sound similar. Audiology have said watch and wait but I we're exploring ENT and what to enquire about grommets. Thanks again x

Hi Jannt86, thanks so much for your input. Yeah to be honest, we've been told to watch and wait for so long now that I'm really frustrated. Audiology cancelled our first appointment, then didn't rearrange it, I had to chase them until they gave me a cancellation appointment by fluke. Yeah the months are rolling by and we're nowhere near conversational. We've had a referral to a speech and language therapist which I'm hoping won't take too long, but in my experience wait lists are loooong aren't they. We've reached out to a deafness charity who were really helpful and we've contacted Parent Liaison services at our local hospital to see if they can get us an ENT appointment. Thanks again x

My LO has glue ear. He was treated by a different county hospital first and they took a wait and see approach for nearly a year saying he wasn't that bad. They never shared his hearing results.

We moved area and went to a new audiology team, they shared all the results and told me that he had significant hearing loss in both ears due to glue ear and needed grommets. Finally after nearly two years we paid for a private operation. Two years of him not being able to hear because everyone who I trusted was willing to wait and see.

I feel like a failed him immensely. When we were finally told his audiogram results it turned out he couldn't hear us.

I don't understand how they can say not to be worried or wait and see. Development is so important at that age and not being able to hear will dramatically impact speech and also behaviour.

Since the operation my LO has come on so much. He's turned from a hard work, angry child with one word to a joyful, happy boy who is constantly trying to make some sort of noise.

If you don't already have an understand the audiogram results yourself you need to get them. Do not rely on anyone else to summarise them for you. You need to see them.

The NDCS are amazing. I would speak to them about your audiogram results and also advise on next steps.

@Jannt86 how can u say that by 2.5 if no speech then the child is less likely to catch up? Of course any child will speak eventually. Look at Einstein!! He was very late talking so disproved your theory and did eventually catch up

I'm not saying they definitely won't catch up I'm saying the older they get the less likely it is they'll catch up. Most kids do get there by themselves but lots also don't and if it was my child I would want virtually no speech by 2.5 investigating. The stories about Einstein are anecdotal. He may or may not have spoken late. He also may/may not have had a developmental disorder such as aspergers. He's one person who was exceptional and brilliant absolutely but in no way normal so it doesn't really prove anything. And even if it did that's one person.... Many other late talkers don't have such a positive story to tell. I stand by what I said. Your child may very well be perfectly fine but I don't think it's unreasonable at all to want this looking into more

Please don't take a wait and see approach. Please advocate for your baby. Push push push.

I'm in the same boat as you. I've always suspected my 2.5yr old had glue ear/ear infections but I the GP told me she didn't. She had a hearing assessment at a year old but I was told everything was looking good. Her speech was, and still is, delayed. Her language has caught up but she's very difficult for unfamiliar listeners to understand her. Some of this is developmentally normal for her age but she also has a lot of atypical speech sound errors.

I finally got another referral to audiology last November after being very pushy with her GP. It was looking like she wasn't going to see the audiologist until June this year so I decided to book her into see a private ENT.

We just had our appointment on Tuesday and he took a good look in her ears and said she has glue ear and possibly has enlarged adenoids. He's recommended grommets and possibly her adenoids removed. It was very validating to hear that, particularly as I've been saying this the whole time. It also made me very upset for her as it's been 1.5 years since I first suspected. The ENT did say she's likely to have had it for around 1-1.5 years.

Unfortunately our private health insurance have refused to cover the costs so I called the GP and asked for a referral to our local NHS ENT. I just got the letter today confirming a phone consultation has been booked for May.

I will definitely be fighting for her to get grommets ASAP. I should say I'm a speech pathologist and I know how important it is to address this early. If not sorted it can definitely impact her at school. The wait and see approach is because it can resolve itself over 3 months. But it can also come back. I'm not willing to wait much longer. She's at a critical age for her development.

I have significant scarring from glue ear as a child, permanent hearing loss and can no longer swim underwater due to reoccurring ear infections. Please don't treat this lightly.
I can definitely see glue ear affecting hearing as mine was regularly muffled when I was little. I had grommits put in when I was older and not long after that stopped having issues.
It can be very nasty and painful if not treated however. (As I remember from experience!)

What tests did audiology do? If they didn't conduct an ABR test then I would ask for one of those (he would need to have a general anaesthetic at this age). My son has a type of deafness called auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) and was only diagnosed with an ABR test. They might want to rule this out to be thorough. My son also had glue ear too.

@Nujo op how is your daughter now with her speech?

Hi @Nujo please do you have any updates? I know this is an old thread. trying my luck.