Glue Ear and Speech Delay

[Edel2019]

Is there anybody out there who is going through this with their child or has gone through it?

I'm at my wit's end and would just like to have someone to talk to about it all.

My 4 year old boy has a massive speech delay as a result of very bad glue ear. Things have slightly improved since he got grommets but the speech therapy we've been doing now is intense and difficult to wrap my head around....it's all revolving around auditory processing.

DS had speech issues due to glue ear (that we hadn't realised he had). He was late to speak, and then was unintelligible to anyone outside the family. He had several months of speech therapy.

By the time he was 7 there was little difference between his speech & language development and that of his peers. By secondary school he was more eloquent than many adults. He is currently at university studying History.

DD has severe glue ear. Grommets twice. We were told that of glue ear was the underlying cause for the salt issues, then these should improve quickly and significantly after getting grommets.

for us, there was only little improvement after grommets (twice at 18 months and 3 years old) and we got eventually a dx of autism and learning difficulties. The glue ear was there but a big red herring and not the reason for the speech and language issues. sorry, not a story of a late talker who is now doing well at uni :-/

How long has your child had the grommets? do you have any other concerns other than speech/language?

Bronzegate

Thank you so much for your post; for taking time out of your day to send me a message about such a positive outcome.

I really got to breaking point about it today; I was so frustrated about his progress, it made me irritated and eventually brought me to tears.

I was so wrong. He is only 4 and I'm putting way too much pressure on the 2 of us.

Hi Moccaicecream

Thank you so much for writing to me.

He got the grommets 2 months ago.

I have finally stood back tonight, after putting a fortnight of pressure on myself and my son, and I have just realized it is all my fault. I was reading EVERY single resource out there, taking notes, emailing them to my husband, constantly asking my son questions etc.. it was taking the enjoyment out of our day. I need to relax.

Firstly, progress doesn't happen overnight. Just keep on keeping on, practise the advice you've been given, keep positive and be patient. If one day doesn't go well, there's always the next day.

Secondly, try to be kinder to yourself. It takes time to adjust when your child has a developmental delay or difference (I also have another child with additional needs that will affect them for the whole of their life). This is all fairly new to you. There will be times when it will feel like two steps forward, one step back. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Thank you so much.

This is my first time ever writing on Mumsnet and you really helped me today. Thank you.

are there other concerns about your DC? has he ever been seen by a paed?

I have a child with speech and language problems (verbal dyspraxia in our case) and I'm also about to start a speech and language therapy degree. The thing that absolutely nailed me getting the place on the course when I did the interview was a response to what I felt the challenges I would face would be working with families - and I replied along the lines of that it's getting parents, desperate to do well by their child, to keep faith in the process when often it seems to be tiny or no steps of progress at times and then things will progress and plateau out again - keeping going through all of that and keeping the confidence that it WILL improve is hard. I do it myself with DD2 when I hear her speech and it still sounds so immature (she's 6 - but her speech is more akin to the level of a 3-4 year old) and I have to mentally slap myself around the face and remind myself that she had practically NO intelligible speech at age 4 1/2 when she started school and now she's fully intelligible with a great vocabulary and excellent understanding of language and can bicker with her sister to an amazing degree - I have to force myself to flip the view of where we've got to get TO, back round to where we've come FROM.

If its some hope - like I say - we started school with me as her parent understanding only about 25% of her speech - and now it's fully intelligible, and also, despite her difficulties - she reads at greater depth, top group for phonics and got 100% in the year 1 phonics screen.

Oh Kuponut.....omg. What a message.

Everything you've written.....I've just got to keep reminding myself of your message when I'm finding it tough. I'm going to screenshot it.

Everything you said about parents, finding the progress so slow, and the kid plateauing....is SO TRUE.

Hiya,

I know this is an old post! But having read this tonight I feel like I could have written the same word for word!! @Edel2019

My daughter starts school in sept and has severe unintelligible speech! Phonological disorder and or verbal dyspraxia. She also suffered a lot with glue ear in the early years.

I’ve been getting her pro are therapy now for last 8-9 months and although progressed it’s such a long process and not seeing the results I had hoped for. I have been working my daughter so hard at home! Probably putting way to much pressure on her and any spare minute I get it’s googling or worrying about her being at school and what the future holds! I find it hard to imagine her ever being able to speak properly!

I wondered if you could update on your situation as now 2 years ahead of me

Thanks x

I'm one of the older posters on here @Stressedoutmum3 (Kuponut with a name change) - my DD is still going strong, into KS2 now where, I'm not going to lie, she's found it harder as the language demands have increased - but a bloody large part of that has been the fact that it's a different junior school and they are SHIT with dealing with kids with communication needs - but she's fully intelligible, chatty as hell and can argue the toss with you over anything and everything.

Her speech still has some issues - the intonation of it is a bit quirky at times, there are breaks between syllables that sometimes shouldn't be there and a schwa she inserts into -nd words which drives me slowly insane (so "and" becomes "a-nuh-d") but unless she's upset in which case the words tumble out in a barrage of outrage - she's doing great.

I think there's still potentially an issue there in terms of her language processing or auditory memory - but, and it's fucking ironic considering the degree I'm halfway through, can I fuck get hold of a SALT to do a full assessment on her?! They're all still working through covid backlogs, parents who've gone private because of covid backlogs and school contracts!

Thank you for your reply! I’ve been really noticing the auditory link now we are going to busier places her listening skills are noticeable! I’ve been working so hard with the Salt and at home. She can do all she’s asked in therapy but it just doesn’t translate into conversation yet! It’s frustrating as I know she can do it! Salt can see dyspraxia is going on although I guess mildly compared to some of the research I’ve been doing. She has severe phonological problems I think down to the chronic glue ear she has suffered in the past which has now effected her listening skills too. School is looming and it’s sent me into a panic about her getting her needs communicated without us Around who understand her commands.
It feels like so much hard work and not the quick progress I had hoped for. Although it is hard for you to see progress on your child when around them all the time! I just hope so much she copes and gets support at school. I have have near on no support from the nhs with covid making it even worse!