[senco-forum] glue ear, listening skills and behaviour

My small observation on this is that when babies are small they can

What glue ear will do is attenuate the incoming sound differentially 
according to frequency, especially at the higher frequencies, and the loss 
can rise to 45db in severe cases.  We learn to speak by listening (phones 
are a replication code) so the quality of the sound that reaches the middle 
and inner ear is vitally important.  The incoming acoustic sound pattern 
carries within it the articulatory information required for the speech 
production processes to repeat that sound pattern. If that sound pattern is 
corrupted as it passes through the middle ear then the information that is 
reaching the areas in the brain that deal with articulation patterns and 
speech production will be likewise corrupt and the wrong patterns will be 
laid down.

My experience is that children who have experienced recurring bouts of glue 
ear have difficulties in dealing with the production (and possibly 
reception) of sibilants and it may be that this is a loss of signal and they 
are therefore not picking up the totality of the information in the 
utterance and as a result are missing out on important non verbal (in the 
sense of words) information carried with the incoming speech that might 
better help them make sense of it all.  A bit like non verbal communication 
but at the level of intonation etc.  When the child is listening to incoming 
air conducted speech it will be being matched against their own bone 
conducted speech and this will make accurate comparisons difficult as the 
two are very different.  Speech waveforms are complex and anything but a 
'clean' signal so the quality ideally needs to be as near perfect as 
possible and although as listeners we can deal with degraded incoming 
signals this depends on how good our own stored patterns are.  An example of 
this would be listening to a strong foreign accent of a bad stutter.   When 
I was an EP with Avon the gps and cmo on my patch would routinely inform us 
of any children who were receiving treatment for chronic glue ear so that 
when they got to school we could arrange some remedial work with them and 
make sure that they were sat close to the teacher to ease listening.   In 
those heady multi disciplinary days the children whose speech was slightly 
disordered as a result of their glue ear did a little extra ST guided work 
with a piece of equipment known as TOKBAK  that let them hear how they 
sounded to the outside world and this helped them correct their 
pronunciation.  I believe there is now a similar piece of equipment known as 
HEARPHONE which is used by singers to help with voice training.

Philip EP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mary Kelly" <mary.kelly4 at ntlworld.com>
To: "'Paul and Philippa Bodien'" <bodien at gmail.com>; "'senco forum'" 
<senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 10:02 AM
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] glue ear, listening skills and behaviour

> My small observation on this is that when babies are small they can
> distinguish all the phonemes possible. By the time they are 18 months they
> have "lost" (pruned) the ability to distinguish phonemes that they don't
> hear in the native language all around them. Glue ear, even if it's 
> treated,
> affects a child's hearing for six weeks. It is more prevalent in children
> because the angle of drainage of the Eustachian tube is shallower for them
> so gravity is less effective at draining the tube. Children often get it
> repeatedly. Babies can't tell us they have a hearing problem. So, could it
> be that the damage that causes phonological difficulties (and possibly 
> later
> literacy difficulties) is done at this very early stage?
>
> Also, I find it remarkable that children with listening difficulties seem
> often to have pragmatic language difficulties, and I really haven't a clue
> what the cause and effect chain might be to explain that? And these 
> children
> seem often to have very good reading and spelling. Could it be to do with
> the age at which the glue ear/hearing deficit begins?
>
> The other thing I have noticed from the material that Keith Holland posted
> the other day is that the level of hearing the medical profession regards 
> as
> "adequate" is apparently below the level required to hear /f/ and just on
> the threshold of the level needed to hear /th/ and /p/ in normal speech.
>
> Very interesting.
>
> Mary
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Paul and
> Philippa Bodien
> Sent: 01 December 2007 02:53
> To: senco forum
> Subject: [senco-forum] glue ear, listening skills and behaviour
>
> Can we start a thread on glue ear, listening and behaviour?
>
> I think listening skills - poor listening skills probably due to glue 
> ear -
> underlies a lot of "behaviour" that teachers wish to modify.  The GP, in 
> the
> UK, who came out one weekend night to our screaming 2 year old prescribed
> antibiotics as he said his ear drum was really inflamed.  He also said 
> that
> in the past they did not have antibiotics and the ear drum would just have
> burst, the pus would have drained and the ear drum likely have healed 
> again
> all on its own.  But he could not deny a child medication in the face of
> such pain and distress.  He said that as a result of antibiotics, glue ear
> was now prevalent and this was a medical dilemma.  Our son did get 
> repeated
> ear infections and glue ear.   The same GP was worried.  He gave him a 
> basic
> hearing test and did two things. He prescribed a very strong decongestant 
> to
> give to the boy each time he started  a cold - this was to  keep his
> Eustachian tubes clear of goo and prevent the build up that gives bugs a
> fertile medium in which to thrive.  He advised getting his ears tested at 
> 4
> years of age in a soundproof booth with headphones by an audiologist.
> Otherwise, he advised we were heading for grommets and he really did not
> want to go down that route.  We followed his advice and it was really
> helpful.  Damage to listening and hearing was avoided.
> Untreated glue ear is silent and does lots of damage, not only to hearing
> but also to listening.  Dilys Treharne has observed that sound therapy - 
> The
> Listening Programme and then Earobics, can make a difference to some
> children.  Keith Holland uses the Johansen Sound Therapy, which Dilys has
> observed can also get good results (I say "can" as Dilys finds that 
> children
> respond in varying degrees from a lot to none at all.)  Sound therapy and
> assessment of auditory processing is currently being researched.  If 
> anyone
> is interested in receiving Dilys' article from Skeptic to Convert, I can
> send as an attachment.
>
> Martin M, can you add anything to this thread please?  Keith?
>
> Philippa
>
>
>
>
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