Experiences of hearing loss can impact your life in many ways. You may find that you need to invest in specialist equipment to help you communicate with others and hear what is going on around you. You may have to adapt certain elements of your lifestyle to accommodate the hearing loss. It is relatively easy to identify changes in your own hearing and to seek help. But children are often unaware of how they should be able to hear and whether or not they are experiencing problems with their auditory health.
It becomes your responsibility to monitor their hearing and to seek support on their behalf if you have concerns that they are unable to hear as clearly as they should. But how can you tell if your child has hearing difficulties or not?
Universal Screening for Newborns
Thankfully, universal hearing screening for newborns has helped to identify many children with hearing issues from birth in a fast and accurate manner. This allows for early intervention with the best possible outcomes for language development. However, genetic or progressive hearing conditions can emerge later, after your child has already passed newborn screening, and can generally go amiss until it significantly impacts their life.
Tracking Your Child’s Development
By knowing what stage your child should be at by different ages, you can monitor their progress, which can give insight into whether they are able to hear clearly or not. Here are some key stages you should be aware of.
- Three months: When your baby is three months old, they should be able to recognize your voice, make some noises themselves and appear startled by sudden, unexpected or loud noises.
- Six months: Your baby should react to speech sounds and familiar voices. This could involve turning their head towards new or interesting sounds. They should begin to develop communicative sounds.
- Nine months: Your baby should begin to hear and understand simple communicative words.
- Ten months: They will begin to mimic speech with babbling sounds (like “da-da-da-da”).
- One year: Your baby will begin to speak real words.
- Eighteen months: Your toddler should be able to understand simple phrases.
If you find that at any point in this process, your child seems to be falling behind, you should contact an audiologist, as they may have hearing issues that are inhibiting their progress.
Common Signs of Hearing Loss
Being familiar with common signs of hearing loss can help you to pick up on it sooner rather than later. Some common signs of hearing loss in older children to look out for include:
- Doesn’t react to you when you are speaking
- Doesn’t follow simple commands or instructions
- Experiences regular communication breakdowns
- Is falling behind with expected speech and communication skills
- Needs to look directly at you to understand what you are saying
- Can’t easily identify where sounds are coming from
- Has to concentrate to understand speech
- Exhibits signs of behavioral problems or social difficulties
- Experiences problems keeping up at school
Again, if you notice any of these warning signs for hearing loss, you should take your child to an audiologist, where relevant tests can be carried out to determine whether your child is having hearing difficulties that need to be managed.
What to Expect
If you bring your child to a professional audiologist, they will be able to do everything required to determine whether hearing difficulties are present or not. Your audiologist will have different processes for children of different ages to ensure that they are comfortable and reassured throughout the entire process. Hearing tests aren’t painful. Instead, they are just a series of tests and sounds that will be played to your child to determine whether they are experiencing hearing difficulties.
Often, games and other fun activities are incorporated into the process to keep your child happy and occupied. If hearing complaints appear to be present, your audiologist will be able to diagnose them and make recommendations for next steps that can help your child to adapt to life with hearing difficulties.
If you’re concerned about your child’s hearing, or think that they may need an appointment, make sure to reach out to a member of our team at The Hearing Center at York ENT. We have extensive experience working with little ones and will be able to give you answers to any questions you may have. Just give us a call on (717) 850-9269 and a helpful member of our team will be able to advise you on the best next steps to take for your child.
