Concerns about dds hearing

[chaosisawayoflife]

Dd is 4.5 and recently I've noticed she is talking very loudly and seems to be constantly asking us to repeat things. What would be my first port of call to get her hearing checked? Gp or hv?

you just need to get her to the GP who will check for excess wax or other minor problems, if they don't see anything obvious they will most likely refer you to the local hosp to have a hearing test. glue ear is common in young children so it may be that she is just clogged up. good luck :)

I am a clinical scientist in audiology and I agree get gp to check ears first, if clear then referral to audiology will be next stage. The audiologist should ask your child to wear headphones and perform a task such as putting a wooden man in a boat in response to a sound. This is play audiometry and they should test at least 4 pitches (freq) of sound that are important for speech and language access. If there are any raised levels in hearing they should use a bone conductor placed behind the ear to assess the underlying hearing. Otoscopy for looking in the ears and tympanometry to assess the function of the middle ear. This will determine if your child has any congestion ( glue ear if there for > 3 mths). If they are able a speech discrimination test should be done to see how your child's hearing detection is affecting their functional ability in quiet and noise.

Roughly up to 45% of children in a classroom can suffer with congestion at any one time so this is very common and is usually temporary in nature and should clear by itself.

Best of luck

Acousis could I ask your thoughts on my sons case of glue ear? He is 5 and has both ears effected with glue. He has worn hearing aids since August as his loss was moderate. The audiologist consultant was quite anti grommets and felt it would clear within a few months. His left ear did for 2 weeks.....but now back to how it was and hearing aids on both sides. As he is now 5 would you move to grommets?? He is a keen swimmer and doing well at school, he has never had ear infections and seems ok with aids however his behaviour is a bit suggestive that his hearing is still not great.

MANY THANKS AND SORRY TO JUMP IN!

If he has never had grommets before and there are no other health concerns relating operations or grommet insertion I think it is well worth talking to ENT about it. They tend to be reluctant for children who have Down syndrome or conditions where congestion is a more persistent complication due to anatomical structure. It would be useful if your audiologist could do some speech discrimination testing with and without hearing aids to see if they are benefitting him to a great extent if not already done so. Hearing aids are an option for management esp if grommets have been tried in the past. Generally they won't do more than 4 sets of grommets as everytime they pop out the eardrum heals and leaves scarring, the more this happens the more likely the eardrum is to reduce in movement and so no more than 4 sets are considered. Hearing aids are fine but he is still having to hear sounds through the "glue" so they are just amplifying sound to aim to bring audible speech into his hearing range. If there are no other complications then def discuss with them about grommets and weigh up the risks and pros and cons. I cannot comment on much specifically as I am not privy to your sons med history and also I cannot comment on the service in your area as differing regions have different pathways for managing glue ear. Some people end up going the private route.
I hope this helps as I seem to have waffled on! My daughter had grommets age 3 and it was the best thing ever. I was going to try HA but my ENT said the glue was too thick and unlikely to resolve. Her speech instantly improved and we haven't looked back.

If he does get them you can get swim plugs made so he can continue swimming without excess risk of infection.

Best of luck and if I can help further let me know