Hearing Loss – Effects and Prevention Tips For Children

Hearing loss is a wider term, it not only impacts the hearing but also influences a child’s ability to develop speech, language, and social skills. Untreated hearing loss can affect all perspectives of life, from the development of speech and language to education, career and social interaction. Today, in this post, we are going to cover some of the effects of hearing loss, and how it shows its impact on all aspects of life.

Speech and Language Development 

Generally, children try to copy the words, what they hear and this is how children learn to speak. Children hear a sound and try to speak, the way they can do and with the improvement in their listening skills, they correct themselves. This is the way, children learn to speak as well as learn to use language. On the other hand, if a child is suffering from any sort of hearing disorder or does not have a healthy hearing, he cannot be able to hear properly how a word is spoken or pronounce, the child will not be able to reproduce the exact sound. It impacts the child’s ability to interact with the family, other children, and teachers.

Influence on Academic Life 

Obviously, if children can’t hear properly – they will miss all the things being taught at the school, affecting their capacity to learn and participate in class. Secondly, research has shown that the improvement of reading skills is slower in deaf children, and reading is the base of education.

Signs and Symptoms 

Every child shows different signs and symptoms when it comes to hearing loss. If you have found that your child does not respond promptly to the sounds, you should consult with an audiologist for hearing screening as soon as possible.

Signs in Babies:

• Babies suffering from hearing loss don’t react over loud noises.
• Babies suffering from hearing loss don’t pay attention to the source of a sound after 6 months of age.
• Babies suffering from hearing loss don’t react if you do not call out his/her name, it could be the result of a partial or complete hearing loss.

Signs in Children:

• Children suffering from hearing loss generally delay in speech.
• Mostly, children suffering from hearing loss don’t have a clear speech.
• Children suffering from turns the TV volume up too high.

Tips to Protect Child’s Hearing 

According to the reports, by the end of the teenage years, one out of six children is affected by the hearing damage due to the exposure of loud sound. This hearing damage can be caused by devices like personal music players, power tools, and farm machinery. This is the reason, it’s very much important to take care of your child’s hearing, now let us see some of the tips that will help you with the protection of your child’s hearing.

Respect Hearing – Teach the importance of hearing to your children as they may be more concerned about their hearing if they learn to respect and appreciate their hearing.

Set Loudness Limits – If your child is listening to media by earphones, you should check the loudness of the sound plus set a password in order to protect ideal volume limits. Additionally, you should reduce the time spent by your child for listening to media.

Make The Choice of Safe Headphones – Mostly, all the headphones can create perilously loud sound, but there are certain varieties of earphones and headphones that are designed especially for safe and healthy listening such as Noise-isolating earphones, Electronic noise-cancelling headphones, Output limiting earphones, etc.

At the Audiology Clinic, Dr Deepak Kumar (Audiological Scientist) provides prevention, assessment and management of patients suffering from hearing disorders like hearing loss, tinnitus, balance (vertigo/dizziness), and more. Moreover, our clinical locations are based in Dublin, Limerick, Mallow, and Naas, here you can also contact us for Child hearing test and assessment.