When did you have your hearing health checked the last time? What about your children? According to WHO statistics, hearing problems are in the top 10 most common among people. Indeed, every year doctors diagnose an increasing number of patients with various hearing issues. The largest percentage of them have hearing loss and tinnitus. Unfortunately, not all citizens are aware of how much such issues affect our lives!
Many people think that hearing loss is not serious. Well, think about it, I’ll ask again a few times or make the sound louder. Similar symptoms are typical only for mild and moderate hearing loss. But with time, it develops, exacerbating the problems. Without treatment, there comes a time when a person has cognitive difficulties, he often loses orientation in space, and gradually falls into depression.
Hearing loss causes physiological and psychological problems that greatly affect the quality of life. But all this is typical for adults. What about kids? With children and teenagers, the situation is even more dangerous!
Why is it dangerous?
Hearing loss is a serious problem, which affects the modern person. This is especially actual for residents of cities, where there are more negative factors for hearing than in a quiet and cozy suburb. As mentioned, hearing issues gradually lead to new difficulties. For some, the development of hearing loss occurs for many years. And someone loses hearing in just a year. All this is very individual.
It is important to remember that hearing loss is a serious problem that cannot be tolerated. For the first symptoms, you should immediately contact your ear doctor Staten Island. Only a specialist can make a correct diagnosis and prescribe an effective treatment.
The situation with children and teenagers is even more serious. After all, we need our hearing to interact with the world around us. Through the work of the hearing organs, we learn and perceive the world. It’s the most important ability, which is necessary for development and learning. As statistics show, kids with hearing loss (without proper treatment) lag behind their healthy peers in development. But if a child doesn’t hear from birth, then he must study at a special school course. Otherwise, the kid will have big problems in the future, especially when interacting with society and building a career.
Thus, healthy hearing for a child/teenager is the foundation for development and successful interaction with the outside world and peers. Parents should know how to recognize hearing issues in their children so that they can seek help in time. The rule works here too. The sooner you see a doctor, the more effective the treatment will be.
How can you see that s child has a hearing problem?
Today, doctors check the hearing of all newborns in the maternity hospital on the 2nd or 3rd day of life. This is an audiological screening, which is carried out using the method of registration of induced otoacoustic emission (OAE). If problems are identified during the check, the doctor prescribes additional examinations for the child.
Audiological screening reduces the chances of “missing” congenital hearing loss and deafness. However, screening is not a definitive diagnosis, but only one of the tests. If the baby didn’t pass the tests in the maternity hospital, this is a reason to appoint an extended diagnostics.
Should you relax if studies have shown healthy hearing? Of course, this is a great result! But parents should not relax. After all, hearing can begin to deteriorate at any age! Therefore, it is always worth paying attention to the behavior of the child and noting oddities if they appear.
Hearing problems in a child can be noticed already in the first days of life. Normally, newborns (children under 28 days old) react to sound. They turn their heads to a voice, wake up to loud noises, and startle in response to a clap or other harsh sound. If there is no reaction, you need to talk to the family doctor.
At the age of 2-3 months, babies recognize the voice of their parents and respond to it. They also listen for other sounds:
- Rattles
- Musical toys
- Noise of cars outside the window
- Dog barking, etc.
At the age of 5-6 months, the absence of babbling also indicates the possibility of problems. Here the influence of hearing loss on psycho-emotional and speech development is already manifested.
By the end of the first year of life, the child understands simple words, for example, “mom”, “dad”, “yum-yum”, “drink”, “yes”, and “no”. If the babe doesn’t respond to extraneous sounds and doesn’t perceive simple words, then parents should think about it. The best solution is to consult a doctor together with a child.
What to do?
If your child has symptoms of hearing loss, you should make an appointment with the doctor. First, the audiologist will check if the child has a hearing impairment. If hearing loss is confirmed during the diagnosis, the doctor will prescribe treatment. The specialist will check the child’s hearing condition using objective diagnostic methods. Depending on the age of the child, the doctor may use tone or play audiometry.
Tone audiometry is an effective and painless method that is most common among adults. But tone audiometry has a nuance. it’s patient involvement. When the patient is not yet 3 years old, he cannot consciously follow the doctor’s orders, which means that the result of such a test will be unreliable.
Play audiometry is a hearing diagnostic involving a teacher of the deaf. It helps the doctor and, using game techniques, determines how the baby reacts to the sounds of a certain tone.
It’s worth noting that it is impossible to restore lost hearing with medication. Treatment is the restoration of hearing with the help of special medical devices. These are hearing aids or cochlear implants. The choice of devices depends on the severity of the problem.
Remember that the effectiveness of hearing loss treatment and rehabilitation of a child depends on the timing of the problem. The earlier hearing impairments are diagnosed, the less severely they will affect a child’s development!