How can glue ear impact my child?
Speech and language
The first years of life are crucial for the development of speech and language. Learning language and how to communicate with others, is fundamental to wellbeing and to our sense of belonging.
A child needs to hear the sounds of speech clearly to understand words and to start to copy what they hear.
Glue ear can result in speech sounding muffled, unclear and difficult to understand. This can result in a delayed speech and language development.
Behaviour
At a young age, the frustration of not understanding or being misunderstood can impact behaviour. Parents of children who have experienced glue ear convey that their child may be isolated and withdrawn because they are unable to follow the conversation or frustrated and disruptive, with the additional listening effort leading to more temper tantrums.
A child with glue ear may appear to misbehave, simply because they have not heard and respond inappropriately. Some children will ‘switch off’ and appear to be in a world of their own as they are unable to access speech.
Listening and attention
Listening will be hard work and tiring, so a child with glue ear may find it hard to concentrate and be easily distracted.
A fluctuating hearing loss due to glue ear can affect the development of listening and attention skills. Additional support to develop these skills may be needed.