Large tonsils and speech problems

[tiger66]

My little boy who is 4 had 2 years of ear infections before he finally had his grommets inserted age 2. Since then he has had no ear infections but a few bouts of throat infections

The gps have commented on a few occassions on the size of his tonsils being large.

We are about to embark on SALT as he is not pronouncing his words correctly and I now question if the tonsils have any effect on it.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We are going to see ENT in march for review for his grommets but should I be looking at doing anything else or pushing for anything to be done?

Has anyone else had experience like this?

Not much help really but my DS1 has speech problems (not pronouncing words properly) and when I read up about the causes of speech problems one cause that was stated was hearing problems (ie glue ear) between the ages of 1 and 2. There were other causes as well. I am really pushing the SALT and pushing for support at school for my DS1 it is so frustrating for everyone concerned.

I'm afraid that being a pushy parent is the best thing to be in these circumstances.

I agree and I had to be the one to find out about SALT. Luckily for me they do a drop in session to meet the SALT but then she said yes he needs speech therapy but there is a 6 month wait - brilliant. We are now going privately!

Thanks for answering lorisparkle x

I have very large tonsils and also had recurrent bouts of tonsillitis as a child. They were never taken out, and I now tend to get tonsillitis once every year or two. I also get occasional ear infections.

I know that doesn't help you much, but just to let you know it's possible for them not to cause too much of a problem through life even if they are large.

6 months is horrendous for waiting for SALT. My DH has said about going private but at the moment we are lucky enough to be getting some sessions although they are not as regular as I would like.

dd2 had huge tonsils - they stopped her breathing and eating, but not speaking.

we carried out a sleep apnoa test last year for ds (then 5) as his tonsils are huge and I thought it was them stopping him breathing/sleeping properly.

He has been seeing a SALT since he was 3 and it's helped a lot. After his next appointment, he won't need to have any more.

I'd make sure you see the SALT as your ds needs to be confident going into school and learning phonics etc (although SALT sessions will help this anyway.

There is a list of letter sounds and blends that a child should be able to make at each age. It's quite surprising the the ones they won't necessarily be able to do until much older than you'd imagine. I don't think the SALT would be able to give a diagnosis though on his tonsil size.

Hi tiger66,

I am a mum and an independent speech and language therapist. It really depends on the sort of speech error patterns he is using as to what the possible causes may be, however it is entirely possible that a prolonged period of reduced hearing during his speech development may have caused his current speech sound difficulties.

However, there have been cases (although unusual) where very large tonsils or adenoids have affected the soft palate function (the soft palate is the ceiling of muscle and tissue that runs backward from the hard bony palate at the top of your mouth, and ends in the little dangly bit that you can see in a mirror if you say 'ah'). The soft palate needs to move upwards and close off the nasal airway in order to produce all the speech sounds (apart from 'm', 'n' and 'ng')and so anything that gets in the way of this closure (such as unusually large tonsils or adenoids) may affect speech. So, as you already have an appointment with the ENT, I would ask your speech therapist whether she/he feels it is appropriate for the ENT consultant to check his 'soft palate function'. It may or may not be appropriate, and your speech therapist should help to guide your decision based on the sorts of errors he is making.

I hope this helps and hasn't confused you at all! Please feel free to message me if you need more advice.

Eleanor Harris