speech delay/grommets

[gladders]

My dd (2.6) has only really started attempting to chatter in the last couple of months. Her speech remains quite indistinct and I do sometimes have to 'translate' for her.We had started down the speech therapy route but have been discharged from that as they are happy with her.

As part of the speech therapy appraisal she had a hearing test which indicated large volumes of fluid in her ear. They will retest in 3 months and if this is still the case, she might have to have grommets.

So - does anyone have experience of children's speech suddenly improving after grommets? I do now wonder whether this fluid has been at the root of the problem all along and am wondering whether i shouldn't try and speed the process up to get it addressed?

I had grommits put in when I was about 4 am now nearly 40, I suffered a lot with ear infections,tonsilitus e.t.c but after I had the grommits and my tonsils removed things did definatly improve
before grommits the amount of liquid in my ear meant I was diagnosed as being 50 percent deaf and learnt how to lip read , It didnt result in me having a speech impediments (maybe mumbling a bit sometimes) and my hearing now is 100 per cent. That was a long time ago so hopefully technologhy is much better now

I had grommets put in when I was about 4 am now nearly 40, I suffered a lot with ear infections,tonsillitis e.t.c but after I had the grommets and my tonsils removed things did definitely improve
before grommets the amount of liquid in my ear meant I was diagnosed as being 50 percent deaf and learnt how to lip read , It didn't result in me having a speech impediments (maybe mumbling a bit sometimes) and my hearing now is 100 per cent. That was a long time ago so hopefully technology is much better now .

My DD (2.3) has glue ear and is being monitored for it. At 2, her speech was awful - words ran into each other and was really indistinct. I struggled to understand her a lot of the time. She hasn't had grommits, as the consultant said that it came with a risk of deafness itself, so instead she was put on a long term dose of antibiotics. At her last hearing test, her hearing had improved dramatically, and we also noticed that her speech has also come on in leaps and bounds too. Probably over the course of about a month, I noticed I went from not understanding her 70% of the time, to now understanding her 70% of the time. I still need to translate her for other people, but it was a dramatic increase. At the same time, her balance increased too and she started walking down stairs again. This might be an avenue worth pursuing? We've got out next review in April, when we'll have to decide to go with the grommits or not. Good luck with your decision.

sorry, grommets!

dd2 had grommets at nearly 5, she went from a quiet mumbling introvert with speech delay to the child who put her hand up in class ALL the time to answer.

It made a huge difference to her speech, learning & confidence.

dd's best friend at school had grommets in November - when dd started in September I couldn't understand anything she said, now she speaks perfectly clearly.

Am really interested in this - ds's speech is very very bad at 21 months (only a very few words, and those are very indistinct) and we know he has bad glue ear. The long term antibiotics seem to be a common first resort - we're hoping they will have helped when he goes back for a check up. His balance has notably improved in the last month or so, which I hope is a good sign.

I think glue ear can really really slow down progress. Once grommets go in, the hearing returns instantly, so progress can be remarkable, apparently.

DS was very late speaking and also couldnt seem to 'get' certain letters in words plus he would listen better to high pitch then low pitch.

We tried cranial osteopathy, in between the hearing tests, to avoid having grommits inserted but this made no difference at all. He then had grommits fitted and the change was amazing! (for the better of course)

interesting stories - thank you everyone...

no one has mentioned antibiotics to us - the only thing we've been told is that they don't rush in with grommets as it is such an invasive procedure, and the thought of her going under a general anaesthetic isn't nice...

her speech is progressing fast at the moment in that she is attempting lots of new words and we get new phrases daily, but I remain concerned about the quality of some of the sounds she produces....

i think i'll hold off until we are called back and then make sure i go through all the options with the audiologist then. so grommets, antibiotics, any other options?

antibiotics isn't used for glue ear, it is used for chronic ear infections and dc with recurrent ear infections are likely to have glue ear.

The problem with glue ear is that they can't hear properly when their middle is filled up, it drains away and then there is a time lag when the brain has to relearn auditory processing of the sounds again, then the fluid builds up again etc etc

It's hard to tell what the future holds dd2 probably had her hearing checked regularly for 2.5 years before she got her grommets. Dd4 doesn't have glue ear but has moderate speech delay but is outgoing and chatty although you have to learn to understand her (she is 3.5 and starts school in September).

It sounds like your dd's speech is really progressing, she may get there all on her own!

We've just been down the route of hearing tests and grommets, ds had them put in last week and his adenoids out at the same time. His main sypmtom was deafness which was picked up by his teacher in Sept and recently he started blurring his words and not speaking clearly anymore. We also had lots of temper tantrums! Grommets have made an amazing difference, instantly he could hear perfectly, his speech is already back to normal and he's a much happier child.

I forgot about the tantrums!!! Yes dd2 was much happier and better behaved after grommets.

Sorry, that wasn't clear - yes, the antibiotics were prescribed because of recurrent and persistent ear infections, which the consultant thought were contributing to glue ear...

ok - no problems here with ear infections...

we do get tantrums but she is only 2 so hearing not necessarily at the root of that!

her speech is really coming on in that she is trying out lots of new words and phrases but some sounds are very weak... her speech has never been good though so if she does have glue ear then she has always had it - is that possible?

I think glue ear can come and go, but even fairly short periods of it at this age can really impair their ability to reproduce certain sounds.