Glue ear and/or autism?

[AllyBallyBee123]

Hi all

My daughter is 2 years and 8 months. In June she was found to have glue ear having been referred for speech delay (single words and babbling).

The referral followed an 8 week period of recurrent viral infections during which time she regressed significantly in her speech and barely said a thing.

Since then her words have come back and she is learning new words, although pronunciation is unclear and she will often say half a word eg "bit"for "biscuit" or "ope" for "open".

I've always had autism on the back of my mind because she has never pointed, didn't really play with toys or respond to her name.

She has however significantly improved her engagement, joint attention and eye contact over the last couple of months.

We are waiting on a repeat hearing test with audiology before deciding how to proceed. Does anyone have similar stories of children with autistic traits who were found to have glue ear? Did the traits persist or improve after grommets?

Thanks

Normally, glue ear should not stop a child pointing to share interests or to request things, it should not stop them playing with toys, or to communicate, or to engage, or to social reference, or engage in imaginative play, etc, i.e. totally deaf children do all that by 18M - though it would impact their receptive/expressive language and obviously responding to their name (as they can't hear it).

Hi @AllyBallyBee123
How is your daughter now?

I've heard GE can impact speech and communication likewise

@AllyBallyBee123 i would also love to know how your daughter is going?