ABSTRACT
Episodes of glue ear can have a significant impact on a child’s development and learning, particularly in areas such as speech and language, spelling and behaviour. Mild to moderate, fluctuating hearing loss means that the child receives only a partial or inconsistent auditory signal (Roberts and Wallace, 1997) and as a result, may appear distracted and disorganised. Prolonged and frequent disruptions in auditory input may obstruct sound discrimination and processing of speech. This is likely to cause the child to have incomplete or inaccurate understanding of what is being said and give them the feeling that they are ‘lost’ when in a busy environment. Children may experience frequent changes in intensity of sound signals, learn to tune out and develop attention difficulties – particularly when expected to listen for long periods of time. They may well be unaware that this is happening.
