How to Detect Hearing Loss in a Child North Little Rock AR
Hearing loss is something that we normally associate with aging, but many people who have impaired hearing are quite young. In fact, it is becoming more and more common for people to experience aging-like loss of hearing even in their twenties. What about children, though? Well, they, too, can experience problems with hearing for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, irreversible hearing loss is caused by trauma or exposure to overly loud noises, and other times, loss of hearing can be temporary and can be caused by a blockage in the ears, which is quite common with children because of the way their inner ear anatomy is developing.
Detecting loss of hearing in a child can be quite difficult, especially if the child is very young. However, there are some things that you can try at home to see whether or not you ought to take your child to an audiologist for a formal hearing test. One of the best ways to detect loss of hearing in an infant is to try to surprise the baby with startling, loud noises. The noises shouldn’t be loud enough to actually harm the baby’s ears, but they should be loud enough that they would make a normal infant jump. If your baby doesn’t respond to noises like these, it’s time for a hearing check.
With toddlers and kindergarten children, detection might be a little different. Sometimes parents are tempted to label real hearing problems as “selective hearing” which those children in the terrible twos – and threes and fours and fives! – are thought to struggle with normally. Sure, some kids do tend to ignore their parents and caregivers when they can get away with it, but real loss of hearing should look different than a child who is choosing to ignore you. Again, one good indicator would be a child who isn’t startled by loud, surprising noises. Also, if you have to repeatedly call your child to get his attention on a regular basis, or if your child talks very loudly to others, this could indicate hearing problems.
School-aged children can be a little easier when it comes to finding problems with hearing. For one thing, children are likely to be subjected to a hearing test upon entering school in the first place, which can be helpful. Also, you might start to notice that your child has problems in school – often they don’t pay attention or don’t understand lessons very well. Most of the time in very young school-aged children, this is less because of a lack of interest and more because they can’t hear or see properly. When your child is constantly getting bad reports from school, a hearing test should be one of the first things you try as a solution.
Detecting hearing loss in children can be difficult and complex, so you want to be sure that you go with an audiologist who is experienced in working with children. Once you detect the problem, though, you can start figuring out how to fix it, making your child’s life easier sooner.
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