Is There A Hearing Problem?
You just gave birth to a baby girl. She’s just perfect. From her curly hair to her chubby little toes she’s beautiful. Even the attending doctor said so. However she didn’t pass the hearing test she was given just hours after she was born. Before you leave the hospital, your doctor tells you not to worry, just get her in for another hearing test before she’s three months of age.
The next few months are filled with sleepless nights and poopy diapers, but also tons of joy. You remember to bring your baby in for her wellness checkups, but you don’t even think to ask for a complete hearing test. Time quickly passes, and she’s now three years old. She’s only gotten more beautiful, more wonderful, but you’re a little worried because her speech and language are nowhere near the level of other kids her age. What could be the cause?
Hearing Loss
By now you’ve probably guessed that I’m going to be discussing hearing loss. Maybe you’ve thought to yourself, “If I love my child, shouldn’t I accept her as she is?” Or maybe you’re saying, “It’s not that big of a deal. She’s three now and I don’t think it affects her all that much.” It might even look that way. Perhaps, from the way you see it, even though she has some difficulties, she still talks, still hears, she plays and acts like any other child (or baby). What’s the harm?
Negative Impact Of Hearing Loss
According to ASHA there are four areas in a child’s life where hearing loss can cause harm:
- Hearing loss causes a delay in speech and language skills
- Your child doesn’t do as well in school because of her speech and language delays
- Because she has difficulty hearing and speaking, she’s socially rejected, which affects her self-esteem
- Eventually her choice of career or vocation is severely limited because she doesn’t have the foundation of speech and language she needs to fulfill the job title
Hearing loss, if left unchecked and untreated, can have a permanent, negative impact on a child’s life.
Stats
We’ve all pretty much gotten used to the stereotypical elderly grandma or grandpa who has trouble hearing. But hearing loss is not just a problem that springs up as someone ages. There are many babies that are born who experience hearing loss. The data varies, but according to one study 1.4 newborns in every 1,000 suffers hearing loss. The CDC conducted a study and its 2005 findings concluded that 5 in every 1,000 children are born with hearing loss.
At face value these numbers tell a sad story, but that’s not entirely true. They also indicate a vast improvement in screening for and finding hearing loss through testing. These days administering a hearing test to newborns is a lot more common. Any baby that doesn’t pass is encouraged to try again within a month, three months at the latest. Early prevention is the key to avoiding the negative outcome of untreated hearing loss.
Red Flags
Maybe your doctor didn’t administer a hearing test at birth. Or you didn’t come back for a definitive hearing test after she failed the first one. Or she’s now three years old, and you’re not sure if she’s experiencing hearing loss. How can you tell? Watch for the red flags. These are just a few taken from a long list:
12-18 months
- Doesn’t turn head in response to sounds coming from another room
- Doesn’t respond to music
- Doesn’t babble
19-24 months
- Uses no more than five words
- Doesn’t respond with “yes” or “no” to a question or command
- Dislikes being read to
More Red Flags
25-29 months
- Doesn’t respond to two-part commands such as “sit down and drink your milk”
- Can’t form simple two-word sentences such as “I go”
30-36 months
- Can’t understand possessive terms such as “mine” and “yours”
- Doesn’t use any plurals or verbs
- Doesn’t ask “what” and “why” questions
Perhaps now you’re looking back and it’s all starting to take shape. You recognize several red flags which leave no doubt that your child has hearing loss. What does it mean?
Speech And Language Impact
It may seem obvious, but if a child can’t hear specific sounds they won’t be able to pronounce them either. A child with mild hearing loss will have trouble hearing the “f,” “s,” and “th” sounds. A child with moderate hearing loss will have problems with (among others) the “n,” “g,” “l,” “r,” as well as the “f,” “s,” and “th.” sounds. And a child with profound hearing loss will have trouble hearing most if not all sounds. The inability to hear and produce sounds directly impacts speech and language.
Moderate hearing loss is definitely more serious, but even mild hearing loss can result in significant speech and language delays:
- It’s a lot harder and takes longer for a child with hearing loss to develop their vocabulary. As time passes, the struggle that a child with untreated hearing loss has with vocabulary gets even more difficult.
- Children with hearing loss have the ability to create sentences, but theirs are much simpler and shorter than their peers who have full range of hearing. That’s because they have a hard time writing and understanding more complex sentences. Examples of sentences they struggle with include sentences with relative clauses (Yesterday was a day when I went to the beach) and passive sentences (The whole cake was eaten by Sam).
- Children who experience untreated hearing loss have difficulty solving reading or math problems. Even more alarming, children with untreated hearing loss are anywhere from ONE to FOUR grade levels behind their peers who have normal hearing. In fact, without proper intervention and treatment, some children with hearing loss don’t improve their skills past the third or fourth grade level.
Not Safe Yet
Perhaps you read all of the above and you think that your child is safe, they passed the newborn test, and you can’t spot any red flags. Unfortunately, your child can still experience hearing loss. As constant environmental noise increases, so does the possibility of having permanent hearing loss. Ear infections under the age of three can also lead to hearing loss, and the more instances of ear infections, the higher the chances become. Trauma to the head can cause hearing loss. Extremely loud noises close to the ear can also result in hearing loss. In other words, some babies are born with hearing loss, and other children develop it for any number of reasons early on in life. Either way the result is the same if left untreated.
Early Intervention
How can you nip the problem in the bud? Well as I said earlier, the best way to approach this challenge is with early intervention. That’s why newborn testing is crucial. And if your child gets a negative result, get them retested as soon as possible, no later than a month just to be extra careful. Seek out a complete test from an audiologist. After you get the results, get the best assistance possible. The resources are out there. A good start would be getting in touch with a speech therapist who specializes in helping the deaf and hard of hearing (if it’s recommended).
Regular Screening
Try to bring your child in regularly for hearing tests to track the evolution of their hearing, making sure that it’s not getting any worse. No matter what the outcome, as long as you’re aware of the facts you can look for an appropriate treatment plan. Even if your child doesn’t appear to experience hearing loss, try as best you can to bring them in for regular testing. Increasing noise pollution and a host of other instances can affect your child’s hearing. Think of it this way: just as an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a regularly scheduled hearing test can help put your fears to rest.
I wanted to thank you for explaining how you can tell if a child is having hearing problems. You mentioned that not babbling is a sign of hearing loss. It seems important to pay attention to how a child talks often so that you can get a professional to look at them as soon as you notice something.
Yes! Paying attention to how your child is responding to you talking to them, as well as listening to his/her vocalizations (babbling, cooing, words, etc.) is important to pick up on any red flags so you can discuss it with your pediatrician and a speech-language pathologist if necessary. Hope that’s helpful 🙂
My wife and I have noticed that our son’s hearing is not like the other children that he plays with, so we are discussing with one another whether or not it would be beneficial to have a test performed. I am glad that your article explains the different varieties of hearing loss and what letters it can affect. For his sake, I think that I will get into contact with a hearing examiner to schedule an appointment.
I’m glad to hear you and your wife are taking the step to set up an appointment for your son. What I always tell families when I am assessing their child is… Even if services are not recommended at this time, bringing your child in for an evaluation will at least give you peace of mind as to whether your child is on the right track in his development. For me, making that appointment is far better than going week after week wondering if you’re doing all that you can do for your child.