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This week we have had cause to investigate some possible ear problems with our youngest. It’s one of the things where we have ummed and ahhed about things for a while; thinking that perhaps there is a range of reasons for some of the issues that were being presented. But, as we got closer to our review deadline of Christmas, we decided to bite the bullet and book an appointment with our GP to start off the process of having him checked over. We had considered approaching a clinic such as Auris Ear Care, but decided to keep it to the GP for now.
Is there an issue?
We have a busy house! There are three children, all close in age and that means that, on occasion, it’s noisy and the children can sometimes feel like they’re fighting over each other to be heard. We have always been conscious of letting the youngest have space to talk and try to stop the older two interjecting, telling or finishing his stories for him. We don’t always get it right, but we try to.
We have noticed that he seems to talk very loudly. We wondered at first if this was just part of his personality; he likes to command an audience and certainly plays to the attention that he often receives. But his volume hasn’t really shown much sign of going lower, despite our repeated attempts to persuade him to start talking in a whisper.
We have often wondered if his loudness is just his way of making himself heard; being the smallest means that sometimes you do have to shout to grab the attention of your siblings; but when does it become more than that?
Links to speech
Alongside this issue, we have been concerned around the clarity of speech and some of the letter sounds that he really struggles to make. Whilst I am sure that children all get their speech at different stages, the lack of clarity has become a real concern as it’s not shown any signs of improvement and we have to really try very hard to understand all that he says.
Coupled with the volume he talks at we began to wonder if he had some other issues going on.
The First Steps
As H is only 3.5 years old, it’s hard to get him to tell us if there is any discomfort or pain in his ears. He certainly doesn’t behave like there is, but then if the muffled hearing is his normal, then he might now know there is a difference.
I took him to our GP who gave him a good examination. She noted some slight dulling of his eardrum which might be consistent with Glue Ear or some other fluid build-up. The next step is for him to be referred for a hearing test and we are awaiting that appointment now.
We are also on the waiting list for an assessment by the speech and language team, so I am hopeful that by summer we might be a bit further forward in helping him with his communication!
If you’ve had any experience with ear problems in young children I’d love to know – please leave a comment or contact me on social media.
