Kid’s Corner

Hear­ing loss at any age is an emo­tional issue. It robs you of a sense that adds so much to the rich­ness of life. This loss is espe­cially heart­break­ing in chil­dren. Not only does it impact the sound expe­ri­ence of a life yet to be lived to the fullest, but it also cre­ates a bar­rier to a child’s num­ber one job, learn­ing. For­tu­nately, many causes of hear­ing loss are treat­able, and it is often pos­si­ble to return the sounds of child­hood to a young life. Read on to learn more.

Cat­e­gories of Hear­ing Loss
As with adults, hear­ing loss in chil­dren is mea­sured in degrees. The loss can range from mild, one that causes dif­fi­culty hear­ing hushed tones such as a whis­per to mod­er­ately severe, where the child can still hear loud speech, to a total loss result­ing in deafness.

Hear­ing loss in chil­dren typ­i­cally falls into two main cat­e­gories. The most com­mon, a con­duc­tive hear­ing loss, is asso­ci­ated with con­di­tions in the exter­nal or mid­dle ear that block the trans­mis­sion of sound. These con­di­tions can include ear infec­tion, fluid in the ear, impacted ear­wax, a per­fo­rated eardrum, a for­eign object in the canal or birth defects that alter the canal. Many of these con­di­tions are treat­able through minor pro­ce­dures or surgery.

Sen­sorineural loss, also known as “nerve deaf­ness”, is the sec­ond type. This occurs when there is dam­age to the inner ear or nerve path­ways from the inner to the brain. Most often, this type of loss is caused by con­gen­i­tal. It can also be caused by the use of oto­toxic drugs (antibi­otics), pre­ma­ture birth with a very low birth weight and some of the result­ing treat­ments or a num­ber of other med­ical con­di­tions. Although there is no cure for this type of loss in most cases, chil­dren can often be helped with hear­ing aids.

Symp­toms
Signs to look for pos­si­ble hear­ing issues in chil­dren of dif­fer­ent ages are:

New­born / infant:

• Not star­tling at loud noises
• Not show­ing nor­mal speech development

Tod­dler and older:

• Sit­ting close to the tele­vi­sion with the sound turned up to a loud volume
• Hav­ing dif­fi­culty in school
• Not respond­ing to some­one that is talk­ing with­out being face to face
• Stat­ing they are hav­ing dif­fi­culty hearing

 

If you believe your child is expe­ri­enc­ing a hear­ing loss, con­sult with your physi­cian or an Audi­gyC­er­ti­fied™ pro­fes­sional at the ear­li­est pos­si­ble date. Timely test­ing, diag­no­sis and treat­ment pro­vide the best course of action to ensur­ing the high­est qual­ity life­time Sound Expe­ri­ence for your child.