ABSTRACT
During my research into glue ear and its link with dyslexia, I spoke to many parents about their experiences. I have used five families’ stories in this chapter to ‘set the scene’ for the rest of the book. Family 1:
Our little Sara has had grommets inserted – at last! So far so good – she was instantly transformed, just as you had predicted. Went in to the hospital at 7.00am and out at 2.00pm a much happier toddler. In the hospital, far from being fearful of newly-heard sounds as we had been warned, she delighted in hearing the loo flushing and wanted to hear it again and again! The surgeon said that he was reluctant to take out adenoids in one so young (15 months) but might have to in future and will review. The operation was very necessary as the glue was compacted and distorting the bones. But when they removed the glue, the bones popped back into place…phew!
Thank you so much for the advice you gave us. Now let’s hope the operation remains successful, the grommets stay in, there is no infection and all is well.
Family 2:We have a son who was born with glue ear. He failed every hearing test at his health checks and suffered ear infection after ear infection. At the age of 13 months he was referred to the Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital in London for grommets to be inserted; this procedure was repeated when he was three years old. He then had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy at the age of seven.
We battled all through infant and junior school because we felt that he had difficulty with reading and writing. Unfortunately we were told at the time that we were just comparing him to his older brother who was a very able child. Things got much better once he got to secondary school thanks to a very dedicated Special Needs Team and he had weekly help until the age of 14 when the funding ran out. Thankfully, one of the learning support teachers continued working with him when she could and last year managed to get an educational psychologist’s assessment. At the age of 16 he was finally diagnosed as being dyslexic. He had extra time in his GCSEs and achieved ten passes at grades C–A*. He is now in the sixth form and the school have just given him a laptop for his assignments.
I am sure that you have heard of many children like our son, but sometimes we felt like we were on our own fighting for what he needed. He was never badly behaved or disruptive at school and somebody once said to us that if he had been, we would have had the help he needed much quicker. He has had no problem with maths or practical subjects and is about to take the Grade 7 exam on the cello, so teachers haven’t always seen the struggle he has had with writing specifically. He now has the spelling age of 9.8 years and a reading age of 15; so long as he has a computer with a spellchecker he can survive well. But it has been a long battle getting to this point.
Family 3:My son had tubes put in at the age of four years and just this year at age 11, we had him tested and discovered he is dyslexic. We have researched our family histories and so far have not uncovered any relative who is/was dyslexic. Please could you send information to us on this subject. I want to give it to my child’s paediatrician – who is part of a health co-operative.
Family 4:We have a daughter aged 11 and a son aged seven. She was diagnosed with glue ear when two years old, but as it was intermittent she was not fitted with grommets until she started school. The speech impediments she had had resolved themselves immediately, but she really struggled with school work and her lack of ability to spell is still a problem to this day. Now at comprehensive school, she is proving that she has ability but has to work ten times harder than her peers to keep up with written work and learning by rote is really hard for her. We were fortunate that a part-time teacher at her school was also the SENCo at my son’s school. Because of her problems, they have been monitoring his progress carefully and giving help almost before it is needed, which is wonderful. He too was diagnosed with glue ear almost by accident. No-one had told me that as his sister had it, it was almost a forgone conclusion that he would suffer too. I can’t help wondering if her problems would have been avoided if she’d had grommets fitted earlier? Could my son’s condition not have been picked up sooner if I had known he was almost certain to get it? I would not have ignored his speech problems for so long, that is for sure.
Family 5:I am a very anxious parent of a child who is struggling with specific learning difficulties. She has dyslexic traits and as a toddler had grommets fitted because she had glue ear. Please could you help us?
