Exploring interventions over the watchful waiting period in 'glue ear'
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring interventions over the watchful waiting period for children with chronic otitis media with effusion ('glue ear'): Impact on listening, speech and language development, and quality of life
IRAS ID
190096
Contact name
Tamsin Brown
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridgeshire Community Services
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN13818722
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
15/EE/0438, REC reference number ; 0000-0003-0745-8877, ORCID number
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Exploring interventions over the watchful waiting period for children with chronic otitis media with effusion ('glue ear'): Impact on listening, language development and quality of life.
Many children get 'bunged up' with coughs and colds causing a mild to moderate hearing loss, some children are more prone to this and stay 'bunged up'. These children are monitored by the community audiology department and/or ENT for a few months to see if there is spontaneous improvement, if not a grommet operation might be offered. During this time the child's development (speech and language, listening skills, social communication, attention) is disadvantaged. We hope that offering the child a headset that passes sound through the bone - bypassing the problem area that is bunged up (referred to as 'glue ear') - it will help their development. The child's headset would be wirelessly connected to a small microphone that could be worn by a teacher, a parent, a speech and language therapist, etc.
Children would be 3-6 years old, attending the usual NHS Community Audiology Clinics identified as having glue ear. The children would be offered the headset for 6 months/ until they had a grommet operation, their speech and language would be measured at the beginning and end of the study. Questionnaires will monitor listening skills and quality of life. There will be a control group who are offered computer based listening skills instead.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0438
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jan 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion