Do you think your child may have a hearing loss?
First, try not to worry, there is a whole range of technological and medical solutions to help and now, more than ever, children with hearing loss are able to live full and successful lives.
Does my child have a hearing loss?
The first step is to arrange a hearing assessment for your child. Most audiology paediatric audiology departments take referrals directly from parents and carers. Otherwise arrange to see your General Practitioner who will refer your child for an assessment. No child is too young to receive a thorough hearing evaluation. Often now hearing assessments are completed before a newborn baby leaves hospital. While simple hearing screenings may be conducted by nurses or trained volunteers, a complete assessment of hearing in a child should only be completed by an audiologist. The purpose of the audiological evaluation is to determine if a hearing loss exists in one or both ears, to what degree, and to help determine the type of hearing loss. Test results are recorded on a special chart called an audiogram. It is at this point that the audiologist will advise if your child needs hearing aids or other device/s to aid his or her hearing.
Communication
The cochlea which is the shell-like sensory organ of hearing embedded in the hard bone of the skull, attains full adult size and enables the child to hear by the 20th week of pregnancy. This means that your child can hear the sound of Mothers and other voices even before they are born. It is therefore possible for children to be aware of music and other environmental sounds which can prove soothing when the child is born as they are associated with the protected life in-utero.
After birth, a newborn child's sensitivity to sound at a cochlear level is similar to that of adults, but babies must learn how to use their hearing to form the foundations of communication.
Your child's speech and language development - developmental milestones
The following milestones are rough "rules of thumb" for the majority of children. If your child is more than 2-3 months delayed compared to the age-groups mentioned below, it might indicate hearing loss or delayed speech-language development.
| 9 months: | Demonstrate an understanding of simple words "mommy," "daddy," "no," "bye-bye." |
| 10 months: | Babbling should sound "speech like," with single syllables strung together ("da-da-da-da").The first recognizable words emerge at about this time. |
| 1 year: | One or more real words spoken |
| 18 months: | Understand simple phrases, retrieve familiar objects on command (without gestures) and point to body parts. Also should have a spoken vocabulary between 20 and 50 words and use short phrases ("no more," "go out," "mommy up"). |
| 24 months: | Spoken vocabulary should be at least 150 words, coupled with the emergence of simple two word sentences. Most speech should be understandable to adults who are not with the child daily. Toddlers also should be able to sit and listen to read-aloud picture books. |
| 3 to 5 years: | Spoken language should be used constantly to express wants, reflect emotions, convey information and ask questions. A preschooler should understand nearly all that is said. Vocabulary grows from 1000 to 2000 words which are linked in complex and meaningful sentences. All speech sounds should be clear and understandable by the end of the preschool period. |
Localisation
One of the earliest and easiest auditory skills to observe in your baby is localisation, the ability to pinpoint the source of a sound. Because we hear through two ears (binaurally), we can localise sounds with extreme accuracy.
Observing your child's localisation ability
In general, newborns will move or widen their eyes when they hear a sound, this is known as the startle reflex. Any loud sound should induce this reflex. When your infant gets older, about five or six months, you can better observe a true localisation response by making soft sounds behind or to the side of your infant while your baby is looking straight ahead. (Be sure you are out of view when making the sounds!) A soft rattle, shake or a whisper should prompt your baby to turn his or her head toward the sound.
While we expect infants to startle when presented with very loud sounds, it is most important to see how well your baby responds to soft sounds (such as the speech sound "s").
During the first year, your baby will refine listening skills and should alert to and look for the sources of common sounds around the home, such as a ringing doorbell or telephone, slamming door, children playing, a musical toy and speech.
