As a parent, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the possible signs of hearing loss in your children and to contact our Audiologists if you have any questions at all.
Causes of Hearing Loss in Children
Children may experience hearing loss for a number of reasons.
Congenital hearing loss, a condition present at birth, can be the result of genetic factors, but it may also be caused by an infection during pregnancy, prematurity, injury at birth, and other health conditions.
Acquired hearing loss, which develops after birth can also be caused by various issues, including viral and bacterial infections like frequent ear infections, meningitis or the measles, a head injury, or exposure to very loud noises.
Hearing Screening for Children
Most of the time, newborns receive a hearing screening before they are discharged from the hospital. While these screening tests can detect 80 to 90 percent of infants with moderate degrees of hearing loss and greater, they may often miss milder cases.
In addition, hearing screenings for newborns cannot identify late onset or progressive types of hearing loss. For this reason, It is especially important that you monitor your child’s developmental milestones with regular hearing screenings as they grow. School-aged children should ideally receive hearing screenings:
- When they start going to school
- At least once at ages 6, 8, and 10
- At least once during middle school
- At least once during high school
If your child has special health or learning needs, developmental delays related to speech or language, or a family history of early hearing loss, more frequent screening may be recommended.
Signs of Hearing Loss in Children
- Family or teacher notice that a child is not quick to hear
- Language and speech delays
- Difficulty with paying attention and behaving
- Difficulty with academic performance
- Delayed or lack of response to soft and moderate-level sounds or words
- Frequently require repetition
- Don't respond to voices over the telephone, or continually switching ears when on the phone
- Intently watching the faces of speakers
- Difficulty understanding speech when there is background noise
- Sitting close to the TV when the volume is loud enough for others
- Not becoming startled by sudden, loud noises
- Unable to accurately figure out where a sound is coming from