Kid’s Corner
Children’s Hearing
It is important your child hear well. Not hearing well can lead to speech and language delays, poor socialisation skills and difficulties with schooling. Hearing well gives your child the best chance of maximisng their learning opportunities as they grow. However, children are not just mini adults and at Advanced Hearing Solutions our expert clinicians are trained to assess your child’s hearing depending on their age and developmental level.
Due to the smaller anatomy of children, it is quite uncommon for a child to have fluid behind their eardrums if they have had a cold or been unwell. This is the most common cause of hearing loss in a child and usually it resolves itself over time. If, however, it persists it can require treatment. A child may also (but less commonly) have a permanent hearing loss that they are born with or develop over time.
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Symptoms of Hearing Loss
Your child may not know they are not hearing well or may not know how to express hearing difficulties. However, there are often indicators that a child is not hearing well. These include:
- Poorly developed speech and language or going backwards in their speech and language.
- Not responding to their name
- Listening to music or the TV at a high volume
- Poor socialisation with other children
- Poor performance at school or not settling into school
- Complaints of ringing in the ears
- Difficulty locating where sounds are coming from
- Poor behaviour or behaviour that suddenly goes backwards
- Speaking loudly.
If your child has any of the above indicators, or you are simply concerned that your child is not hearing well, then you should have their hearing checked. If there is an issue with their hearing then this can be addressed. If your child’s hearing is fine then you can look at other possible causes of the indicators. But knowing if they are or are not hearing well is an important step.
How do we test a child’s hearing?
After this they will move onto the testing which has three main parts. The first part is checking the child’s hearing levels either by using a game if they are a younger child, or by getting them to press a button for a beep if they are an older child. Importantly they will also check the middle health of your child’s ear by placing a small probe in their ear to see how the eardrum responds to a gentle puff of air. This will tell us if there is fluid behind your child’s eardrums. The clinician will also conduct some testing to determine how well your child understands words.
If your child is found to have a hearing loss, the clinician will discuss a management plan. This could be simply monitoring your child’s hearing, referral to a GP/ENT for medical management of their hearing, or referral for hearing aids if indicated.
It is important you and your child are comfortable during the hearing test and you understand what the next steps are so if you have any questions, please ask our expert clinicians.
If you have any concerns regarding your child’s hearing please contact us for a hearing test.
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Or if you have any questions, let us know and we will get back to you. We are here to help, if you are not sure where to start to or what you need, get in touch and we will help you.