Double hearing in child

[Thisischocolate]

Has anyone had their child complain of double hearing, that is words and sounds repeat in his ears as he hears them (he’s 5)?

He is definitely not describing tinnitus (I’ve had it for 25 years), it literally is if he hears the word ‘banana,’ then that word will repeat in his ears 1-3 times. Same if our cat meows, that echoes too.

He was diagnosed with glue ear aged 2 and has 6-monthly hearing tests. He has some hearing loss at low frequencies but it is borderline and not enough for a referral to ENT for grommets.

He started complaining of this double hearing last April and had a hearing test in July once Audiology re-opened. GP prescribed Mometase nasal spray ‘to dry up the glue’, however Audiology said this time congestion was minimal.

He has another test next week but I think this time we really need to insist on an ENT referral as DS(5) is becoming increasingly distressed by this. The only possible explanation I can find online is Diplacusis but that’s doesn’t seem to present in children from what I can tell.

I have had glue ear on/off most of my life and have had grommets, but I’ve never experienced this double hearing.

I’ve never heard of anything like it, I must say.

My gut feeling is it might be more of a brain processing/behavioural thing that something happening inside his ears, as it were? It makes me think of echolalia, which is where a child repeats a word or phrase over and over to themselves out loud or inside their heads. Obviously your son isn’t choosing to do this and he’s finding it distressing, so there’s also the possibility that it’s an OCD type behaviour, as in unwanted/intrusive thoughts? Is he a particularly anxious child?