Glue Ear and Behaviour

[starsdance]

Hi all,

I have a little boy in my setting (3 within the next two weeks) who was diagnosed with glue ear about 6/8 months ago. I can't get any sensible answer out of mum so I have no idea what they are going to do, if anything. She does keep saying she is going to take him up to Harley Street as she doesn't like the GP but has done nothing as of yet (to my knowledge!)

Anyway, his behaviour, listening skills, cognition and some physical skills leave an awful lot to be desired and I am wondering how much of this I can put down to glue ear, his age or if there is something else going on. I have done our local authorities development record and he falls short in all of the prime areas but is pretty spot on in the specific areas.

Some things that he does:

Running and climbing - very erratic and flat footed (again could be due to his ears)

Will pick things up and just throw them over his shoulder if they are in his way hurting any child in their path - could be age!

No empathy when he has hurt another - could be age.

Permanent runny nose

Inability to listen to instructions even when at his level and won't make eye contact - eye contact could be age as I know it is hard for young children to look at you but you know when they are listening and he isn't.

Doesn't hear his name being called - could be selective hearing! on top of the glue ear

There are also other things that I am not sure whether it is purely glue ear but on top of all this he is a very sweet polite boy who enjoys being outside and getting muddy. He is not one for sitting down and doing anything on a 1-1 basis but again he is only young. This is often forgotten as he is taller than most of my 3 year olds and definitely taller than my 4 year old. He tries to join in with the others but due to his boisterousness they don't want him there and if I had a pound for every time he has wrecked somebodies tower or hurt someone I would be doing quite well.

Sorry for the essay but does anybody have any experience of whether I am doing this little chap a disservice and his behaviour is wholly down to glue ear/age or should I be getting my inclusion team involved.

Thanks

 

[Susan]

It cant help to get another opinion, can it?

My nephew had glue ear which was treated with grommits at a similar age to your little one but he missed out on a lot just the same and it masked other learning issues until much later.

[Guest]

Think I would be asking for a second pair of eyes - I'm getting more and more convinced that the earlier advisers get involved the better in the long run, as getting a 'statement' granted is getting so much harder.

If it all turns out to be a maturity issue nothing's lost, if it's something else then you're already on the road to getting him properly supported, and a receiving school would be eternally grateful.

[tish501]

We too have a child who we need a second pair of eyes for,different needs...but would be interesting to hear from you all about getting the support you need.....we find it is just a case of rotating staff to shadow him 1-1,for the days he attends,to keep him and other children safe...since financial constraints at LEA mean we have little support in the day to day activities that we know all children are involved in ...Your experiences would be helpful...

[SueJ]

Have you thought about asking parents for permission to have his health visitor visit the setting to do a joint observation - I find that this can be quite a useful starting point and helps parents to "focus" a little - it is also a second pair of eyes - if something does then become an issue for flagging up for other agency involvement I have found in the past that any referral from an HV seems to zip through the system far quicker than any that I do too!

[Inge]

Mum needs to return to GP, or another doctor in the practice and ask for referral to consultant ...

Glue ear varies greatly but for some children it can be like being deaf.. and can also cause balance issues.. trying to separate the developmental issues caused by this and any others will be very hard. Treatment is usually grommits, but I do know some GPs like to wait and see if it improves before referring.. the runny nose is highly likely to be linked and could be an enlarged adenoid problem that often goes with glue ear.

It may be hard to separate the developmental issues due to lack of hearing and others..so would treat him as if he was deaf with little or no hearing.. maybe introduce some hand signals/makaton for communication.. you do not comment on his speech but I would expect this also to be affected.. and maybe get advisors or any help in you can..

[starsdance]

Spoke to Mum on Friday who has agreed for us to get the LA Inclusion department in to see what they can help us with. She is hoping that by doing this she can go back to the GP and say that as we have picked up on it is there something that can now be done.

[finleysmaid]

My daughter suffered terribly with glue ear (and wax issue so ear drum couldn't vibrate) i have a little chap at pre-school at the mo who is almost deaf due to glue ear. In both these cases behaviour issues are a direct result of hearing problems....stick your fingers in your ears for a few minutes and you will be able to tell why!!!! A proper diagnosis is needed ...do you have a specialist hearing unit at the hospital? she should be able to self refer to that...you could also write a letter to back up the issues (we often do this now) the problem is that doctors do not like doing gromit operations before the age of 5 now by which stage these children are way behind their peers

[narnia]

In our county, WE can refer children with hearing problems ourselves ( with parental permission of course), it's making a big difference as the referrals are dealt with very quickly and if necessary, there is then speech and language help. We had one child last year who definately has a problem and asked mum if we could refer 'No need, done it myself and he's fine'............so we gave it a couple of months and she said, 'no, I'll take him back and get it re-checked', again she told us she had been and there were no issues. So in the spring, we tried once more, telling mum that his speech was being affected, but she insisted that she had dealt with it, but if we were worried, she would take him again. And again, she said he had no problems, all was fine.

Thankfully, I put on this child's transition report that we had some queries about his hearing, but mum had been very proactive about getting him tested and there were no known issues at the time of my report. And guess what?? Mum had the forms to fill in for school hearing test............and she's put on there that she is concerned that he has a hearing loss and that 'when he was little, he had glue ear which he's had no treatment for'! I totally despair