What are the signs of poor hearing? Concerned about 4 year old

[MummyGorilla]

Not sure if I'm imagining it - DS is nearly 4, and regularly asks me to repeat things. When I speak loudly, he hears it. And it's not just because he's concentrating on something else, it will be in the middle of a conversation with him.

That on its own wouldn't have me concerned, but we were in town today, with a lot of background traffic noise, and I really noticed it - every time I spoke I had to repeat myself two or three times.

Now I'm thinking about it, I'm linking the fact he spoke very late - really, few words until he started pre-school at 3, although I wasn't too concerned at the time as he is very capable in other ways and understood everything I said. He talks now, but is not massively chatty: I put that down to his character.

He also always wants the TV on very loud - I had thought that was just his love of Bob etc!

But are these typical signs of poor hearing? It's the fact the background noise really affected his understanding today that got me worried. And if so, what do I do? Speak to HV? GP? How would they assess him? Grateful for any advice.

could be worth getting it checked out i would go to gp to rule out ear infection they will also be able to see any inflammation

my friends ds has just been dx with glue ear and needs grommits his same age as your ds

Yes, these are typical signs especially the TV volume. A doctor will usually ask you if they have the TV loud or sit right by it.

Def get him referred to an audiologist. Make sure it's done properly in a sound-proof room etc.

Good luck

Yup, those are typical signs - this has quite a comprehensive list if you scroll down a bit

See the GP, who can refer to a paediatric audiologist for a full assessment.

My friend's dd had these signs, and it was all resolved by having her adenoids out - so don't panic. She was 5.

These were exactly the symptoms my dd had. It turned out she had pretty severe loss due to glue ear in both ears, she did hide it well though! Has he had ear infections? Glue ear is the most likely culprit.

DD had grommets in and adenoids out a year ago and is fine now. It is worth chasing this up sooner rather than later as if there is a problem it will be monitored for a time to see if it persists before anything is done, and then you may have to battle for funding for op...

I initially got dd referred via my health visitor, but I am sure GP would do it too.

Good luck!

Ds is like this every time he has a cold - it can take days or even weeks to get back to normal.

A friend was in a similar situation to theextent her dc was quite obviously experiencing speech and hearing difficulties at Reception level if not earlier. It took 2 years before they were even offered an appt with a specialist so I'd get on the case now if you are concerned

Thanks all.

That's useful info, but seeing that list from Sidge has actually made me more concerned. I can't believe I didn't notice before - when he was younger he always reacted appropriately when we walked in the room, dropped something behing him etc, so I'd stopped looking for signs. But I'm now thinking about pitch - my voice is quite low, so perhaps he picks up the sharper/higher sounds and not lower sounds?

Does hearing deteriorate as they grow older - is that a general symptom or does it point to glue ear? And what exactly is glue ear? He doesn't particularly have ear infections.

And are there ay physical signs of poor hearing - eg can they 'see' glue ear? Or is it more observation?

I'll definitely take him to get him checked out.

Have looked at NHS direct and feel a bit less bad - can see glue ear can be temporary. He is quite snotty at the mo, but perhaps he's prone to glue ear or reduced hearing when he's mucus-y (which like many 3 yrs olds is most of the time over the winter!).

God, being a parent is hard, who knows what to look out for, it really hadn't entered my head that he might have a problem hearing, but he seems to be showing the signs.

Thanks again everyone, first job tomorrow is a call to the GP.

If you're worried then book an appointment. I was worried about my two year old for quite a long time, but everyone kept telling me she was fine. Even the HV I saw said she was fine. But I think a mother often has got an intuition about these things. I kept pushing and eventually got a hearing test, which she had last week. Sure enough, she has glue ear and hearing loss.

For us, the signs were that she did sit very close to the TV to watch it, she would often ignore me when her name was called and her speech was quite bad. She spoke quite late, and whilst some phrases were completely clear (like "you're hurting me" is embarrasingly clear! ) but other phrases are completely incomprehensible. For example, thank you is arrr - oooo. There are certain sounds she does not say such as 'th', 'f', 's' and so on. Also, she tends to miss off the start or end of words. Oh and she also tugs at her ear a bit.

The NDCS do a leaflet on Glue Ear......
www.ndcs.org.uk/professional_support/news/update_to_glue_ear.html