Glue Ear/ delayed speech/ ? Your experiences

[Newmomma2705]

Hi my DD has bilateral glue ear with hearing loss. She is nearly 3yo and lack of speech. Was just wondering if anyone else has A LO with severely delayed speech and it been due to glue ear ? She is being assessed for autism but they have put that on hold until the glue ear sorted as they said autism can mimic glue ear ? Has anybody else been through this looking for experience after grommets. Thanks x

Our youngest GD was almost completely deaf by the time she was diagnosed with glue ear and had grommets inserted. She was immediately a different child and made up for lost time in language development very rapidly, gaining a place at a highly prestigious school only 18 months later.

Have you had the grommets inserted yet? Like PP, when our almost 3 yr old had them inserted he was transformed, speech came on almost overnight (he barely said anything at that point). Also bilateral glue ear and hearing extremely affected, multiple ear infections and just permanently coldy.

DC2 also had glue ear but due to COVID we were delayed getting grommets so he was almost 4 when we got them done. His speech has been slower to recover but still improved.

Thank you both. No we haven't had then inserted yet we are seeing a private ENT consultant next week as the NHS is telling me boarding on a year wait due to covid ! Glad to see you both seen improvements, she will be 3 at the end of month and virtually no speech either. They was starting assessments for ASD but said that glue ear can overlap so I don't want to wait any longer to drag it all out. Thanks

Can I ask how you got to this point? I think my son may have this but noone seems to listen to me. His dad also had it as a child. My son is 2.5 and barely says a word

My DD was diagnosed with glue ear at 2.5 after multiple hearing tests. Her speech and attention was very delayed. she had gromits in at 3yr and 6 months later she had just about caught up. She is still having speech therapy so make sure you ask to be referred for that and they are pleased with how she is progressing.

Does your DD go to nursery? Our nursery were the ones who suspected glue ear and also referred her for speech therapy and ENT investigations. They were very helpful in pushing for more support.

Hi @Putdownthecake my daughter wasn't saying anything at her 27 month check & had a few red flags for autism so they said I could been seen by SALT straight away as communication concerns then she had a hearing test had glue ear so repeated and had it again with hearing loss so that's where I am.now however they have referred me to ENT on NHS but I am going to pay private as the wait is to long.
And thanks that's really helpful was there any more signs your children shown? I don't know if it's glue ear or ASD so I'm stuck will update when I see ENT. X

In terms of what got us to the glue ear / grommets diagnosis - for DC1, multiple ear infections put us on the radar of ENT. Plus DC1 had back to back colds and snored heavily, which made ENT suspect he needed adenoids removed as they were obstructing his nighttime breathing. Glue ear plus hearing tests plus we constantly said how little he was speaking: all added up to grommets being inserted.

For DC2 we were more alert to the issue, but he confounded us by having no ear infections and yet still having speech delay (which was also picked up by nursery). Plus covid slowed it all down when we asked for ENT referral.

I would say to push for a hearing test as this will pick up glue ear. For us, we had to have two consecutive hearing tests showing glue ear before we were listed for grommets. It’s a minor op but it’s still general anaesthetic so they don’t do it lightly.

Op I will pm you - I have a lot of personal experience

PS if anyone is in London I can highly recommend Mr Lily who did DC1 on nhs but also has a private practice with ENT kids and I took DC2 there to speed things up.
www.ent4kids.co.uk/ian-billy
He is such a lovely man, wonderful manner, very experienced.

My 4 year old has been suspected of having glue ear for the past 2 years, but because his ears are full of wax they can't see his ear drum to diagnose it, but nothing they give us manages to clear the wax.
And they won't syringe children's ears.
His speech has been slow, both nurseries have mentioned it.
He's been to SALT twice and because he understands and follows instructions they discharge him.
He's had multiple hearing tests which he's only just passed, but because he's passed they won't refer him.
He's off to school in September and will turn 5 as soon as he starts and although he's talking more he still can't pronounce many of his letters.
I worry how he'll cope.

OP- I had a single grommet at almost 4yrs old. My advice is to explain the procedure fully to your child so they know what to expect. To this day, I can still recall the operating theatre, black mask being put over my face, cannula in the back of my left hand, waking up in the childrens ward with a single TV on the wall with 3 others kids etc. (it was the 1980's!). I also recall seeing the ENT a few weeks later to remove the grommet- again, I wasn't aware this was going to happen and can still see him with a long, metal, pointing tweezers trying to get it out of my ear!!! I had no idea it was going to be removed!

I recall the endless ear infections and antibiotics before the op, and none after, so it was great in the end. Just something to be aware of, that a 3yr old (40 odd years later) can still remember!

@Elouera

OP- I had a single grommet at almost 4yrs old. My advice is to explain the procedure fully to your child so they know what to expect. To this day, I can still recall the operating theatre, black mask being put over my face, cannula in the back of my left hand, waking up in the childrens ward with a single TV on the wall with 3 others kids etc. (it was the 1980's!). I also recall seeing the ENT a few weeks later to remove the grommet- again, I wasn't aware this was going to happen and can still see him with a long, metal, pointing tweezers trying to get it out of my ear!!! I had no idea it was going to be removed!

I recall the endless ear infections and antibiotics before the op, and none after, so it was great in the end. Just something to be aware of, that a 3yr old (40 odd years later) can still remember!

Sounds terrifying, but these days they do let them grommets just come out by themselves (typically 6-12 months after is usual I think) and hopefully the pre and post op experience is better too!!

My son had bilateral glue ear, with loss of hearing and speech issues. He had grommets inserted and was discharged from speech therapy three months later. It hasn't had any permanent effect on his hearing or speech, and it was in 1992!

@Elouera

OP- I had a single grommet at almost 4yrs old. My advice is to explain the procedure fully to your child so they know what to expect. To this day, I can still recall the operating theatre, black mask being put over my face, cannula in the back of my left hand, waking up in the childrens ward with a single TV on the wall with 3 others kids etc. (it was the 1980's!). I also recall seeing the ENT a few weeks later to remove the grommet- again, I wasn't aware this was going to happen and can still see him with a long, metal, pointing tweezers trying to get it out of my ear!!! I had no idea it was going to be removed!

I recall the endless ear infections and antibiotics before the op, and none after, so it was great in the end. Just something to be aware of, that a 3yr old (40 odd years later) can still remember!

My experience was very similar except mine weren't removed- DEFINITELY agree with explaining it- I distinctly remember them telling me that I wouldn't feel a thing when they were putting in the cannula (spoiler alert: I did, it traumatised me and I feel very strongly that children should be told they'll feel something- even if it's 'just a scratch'!!!).

Never really thought about it before, but I even remember the repeated infections and then nothing after! :D

My mum says I always lip read, but I don't remember tbh.

My DD had glue ear and speech delay but the glue ear was never consistent enough to be treated. However it did disappear by itself eventually. But she still had a speech delay which became a speech disorder as she became further behind. However age 6 .5 and many years of therapy behind us - she has just been discharged from speech and language therapy. Her older sister also had a speech disorder so I'm not sure the glue ear caused the delayed speech. Definitely worth self referring to speech therapy if not being seen by anyone yet.

Ds had severe glue ear and 3 lots of grommets, the first being at 20 months.

Yes, agree with telling them. And not in a "the doctor will make your ear all better" way because when they wake up with it hurting (and ds says it does) they then can think you lied about it-it's made it worse not better as far as they're concerned.

With ds what brought him to the doctor was ear infections. That was repeated ear infections roughly every 10 days from 10 weeks onwards.
He had a good vocabulary (with his second lot of grommets aged 3yo he marched into the hospital and glared at the nurse and said, "my mummy is trying to starve me to death, she won't give me any food." Nurse said, "good" )
But he did need speech therapy for pronunciation. I remember him coming home from phonic lessons at school really excited to tell me that sh and ch made different noises-he could hear no difference.

With the autism/glue ear just keep an eye on that. We were always dismissed for that suggestion as "wait until his glue ear goes, we can't tell before that." Unfortunately his glue ear didn't go until he was nearly 12yo... he was diagnosed as on the ASD spectrum recently-aged 13yo.

Thank you everyone it deifnately looks like I need to push for the grommets! X

My eldest had glue ear and delayed speech. He had hearing aids from just before he turned 3. It instantly made a massive difference! He started interacting with other children and engaging at nursery the day they were fitted. He hasn't needed them since the winter he was 6 and they honestly were not a big hassle.

Hello- Teacher of the Deaf here! To answer your question- yes- long standing glue ear can have a significant impact on speech and language development and can sometimes look like ASD.

Have you been offered hearing aids? Where I work children are often given these temporarily while they wait for surgery or until it resolves. Access to speech and language at this age is so important- I really would enquire about this ASAP as waiting lists for minor surgeries such as grommets have been severely delayed due to COVID.

Oh and you don't need to have had loads of ear infections- lots of glue ear is caused by the end of the eustachian tube being blocked by adenoidal tissue- this causes a sort of vacuum in the middle ear which makes the ear drum less compliant and also pulls fluid from the cells inside the middle ear cavity which is the "glue" that gunks it all up.

Thank you so much, we haven't been offered hearing aids but I will push for something when I see ENT Thursday as it sounds like this is really not helping with her speech. That's really positive that you noticed a difference the same day @Floordrobe the engaging with children is one of my worries because she's always watching them and plays but sometimes doesn't engage great but if she can't hear or speak it is definately impacting this! Xx

Thank you for all your help we had grommets inserted yesterday. I Hope we see an improvement xx

Just updating this thread incase anyone looking at a later date. One month post grommets and my pre-verbal child can say 40 words. Push for grommets if your child has glue ear affecting speech ! Xx