Grommets

[sweetpea321123]

Hi everyone

My daughter had grommets inserted 6 weeks ago to help with her hearing and speech development. The consultant said a lot of glue was drained from her ears and we were hopeful that this would solve the problem... but 6 weeks on her speech hasn't improved much...still unclear and unable to say "s" and "f" sounds. It's disheartening as everyone I have spoken to who has gone through similar have said their child's speech essentially changed overnight (recollections may vary though I guess!!).

Any Mumsnetters been through similar??

How old is your dd? My son had grommets put in when he was 2 1/2 after having his glue ear monitored for a year and it being obvious that it was affecting his speech. They left it for another year till he was 3 1/2 before starting on speech therapy. He had certain letters that he couldn't pronounce properly (but I can't remember what they were!) He had a 6 week intensive course of speech therapy in a small group with 3 other children, then when he started school he saw a speech therapist there once a week until he was nearly 6. During this time his speech came on dramatically, but he still had some pronuciation difficulties. I would say he was probably 8 by the time he could say all words correctly. It sounds like it took a long time, but he would often go through a lot of improvement then plateau for a while.

He is 18 now and doesn't shut up! You would never know he had such problems with his speech in his early life. Also while his speech was late once he got going he actually had a very advanced vocabulary. I would say that 6 weeks is still pretty early days.

Agree with pp.
How old she is, and just how limited her hearing was before will affect the change, hugely.
It isn't a magic operation that corrects all speech patterns, it is a procedure that means they can start hearing so much more clearly than before. that hopefully takes them to a starting point for speech improvements.

She's just turned 4... and her speech is quite limited in terms of clarity. She chats away but it is gobbledygook. I will keep persevering. Thanks everyone 👍🏼

It probably will take quite a while for her speech to catch up as she probably hasn't been able to hear clearly during the crucial period for speech development as a baby and toddler.

I was told that once they have the grommets fitted they might have to learn to filter out background noise as they might not have had to do that before (the was certainly true for my son who hated going anywhere with a bit of noise once he had grommets). I was told that until he'd learnt to do that his speech probably wouldn't improve much. Also my son really had to learn to hear the subtle differences in sounds as he'd never been able to distinguish between them before. That was what his speech therapy focused on mainly.

Thank-you for that x

"s" and "f" are hard sounds. I think still struggling with them at 4yo is age appropriate, if I remember rightly from when mine had speech therapy.

Ds' speech didn't improve noticeably after any of his grommets, But I do remember him coming out of school to very excitedly tell me that did I know ch and sh made different sounds. He'd always heard them the same before.

Is she having/on the list for speech therapy? If so have a chat to them and see if they can suggest any games you can play to encourage those sounds.

Anyone still around on this post? I have a 3 year old daughter in what sounds like the same position unclear speech and waiting on grommets for glue ear in both ears. Which is suspected to have been around for quite some time. X

Hi @JayKay2020 just found this post as my 4.5 yo is being referred for grommets. Trying to find out how long the waiting list is - have you had your daughter's fitted yet?

Hello @ThatBeachLyfe , Im in the south of england and the waiting list was 28 weeks to see a child ent consultant. We are exploring other options avaliable as my chid will be in school before they even see anyone!

Thanks @WildAmberFish we just had audiology appt yesterday and he's being referred to ENT. We're also in the South and I expect will be a 3-4 month wait to see ENT and then another 6-9 mts for grommets. He starts school in Sept so I want to get it sorted before then. Both DH and I have private medical through work so will investigate what's possible via that avenue.

We had an audiology test at the start of the year and heard nothing so far. If you have insurance and can bypass the nhs you will definatley get this sorted quicker. Good luck

@ThatBeachLyfe did your DC have the op yet? Has it made a difference to their speech?

Hey @litup yes DC had grommets fitted in August and the change to his hearing was immediate. Once he woke up from the anaesthetic, apart from being absolutely STARVING as he'd been nil by mouth from the night before, he kept asking what that noise was - I couldn't hear anything but it was the sound of the fan on the wall. The following day he could hear flies buzzing around which he'd never been able to hear before, and his constant 'What did you say?' stopped. He didn't have any major speech issues tbh, it was his poor hearing that was bothering me. Any questions about the op just shout, happy to help.

@ThatBeachLyfe thanks for the update.
My DC is quite a lot younger than yours was, I'm quite apprehensive about the risks and the worry about how they'll cope with the whole thing.
They are at such a crucial point in terms of speech and social development it seems best to just get it done and hopefully minimise the amount of future SALT needed.