Many disorders can affect the hearing and speech of children and adults. Does your child:
- Listen to the radio or television with the volume turned up
- Not speak clearly
- Not follow directions
- Seem to ignore you when you are speaking
- Often says "huh?"
Maybe he or she has a hearing problem.
Lenore Holte, PhD, audiologist at the Center for Disabilities and Development with University of Iowa Children's Hospital, says these symptoms sound like every adolescent many of us know.
"Parents should always be alert to signs of hearing loss in their children at any age, because hearing loss can happen at any time in life. Older children can tell you or show you in obvious ways that their hearing has changed, but the signs of hearing loss in very young children are not always so obvious," says Holte.
Newborns are tested for hearing loss. Hospitals are required to test every newborn before the baby is sent home. "It's important for new parents to be sure they have a written record of that newborn hearing screen result. If the baby does not pass that screen, it's very important for parents to follow up with recommendations and have the baby tested again.
"The next hearing test for those babies who passed the newborn test depends on several things. Some babies who have high risk factors for hearing loss with an onset after the newborn period should have their hearing checked again routinely in the preschool years, preferably starting before the first birthday.
"Most children will not get another hearing test until kindergarten. Of course," says Holte, "any time parents suspect hearing loss in a child or are concerned about speech and language development, they should tell their pediatrician or family doctor and ask for a referral for a hearing test with an audiologist."
There are many causes of hearing loss in children. The most common cause of temporary hearing loss in children is the common middle ear infection she says and is something most children experience in early childhood.
Holte says about half of all permanent hearing loss in children is caused by genetics. Even when there are no known family members with hearing loss, a child can still have hereditary hearing loss.
Other causes include infections during pregnancy, particularly cytomegalovirus or CMV infection, or illnesses or exposure to certain medications after delivery. Holte says excessive exposure to loud noise is becoming a more common cause of hearing loss in older children and teenagers.
There are two types of hearing loss: The first type is called conductive hearing loss and this is usually temporary. This is the kind of hearing loss many of your listeners may have encountered with an ear infection or when your ears feel plugged when you have a cold.
The type of hearing loss that is most often permanent is called sensorineural hearing loss and is due to damage to the inner ear or hearing nerve. "This kind of hearing loss is caused by most of the factors I previously discussed and it's the kind of hearing loss we get as we age. Of course, some people have mixed conductive and sensorineural hearing losses at the same time.
"We know that, at birth, about one child in 400 will be born with significant hearing loss that can affect communication and learning. So, every year in Iowa, there are about 100 babies born with significant hearing loss.
"But, as I said before, hearing loss can start at any age. Among school-age children, depending on the particular definition of hearing loss and the group studied, somewhere between one and eight children in 100 have hearing problems that can affect learning.
"However, in an alarming recent study commissioned by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, more than half of high school students surveyed reported at least one symptom of hearing loss! So, we may be seeing an increase in the number of kids affected in the future," she says.
Noisy toys and environments can contribute to hearing loss in children. Toys that pose a noise danger include cap guns, some toy vehicles with horns and sirens and some toy vacuum cleaners. When considering a toy purchase, Holte says parents should listen to the toy and avoid buying anything they find uncomfortably loud. Also, as the study suggests, there is a threat of noise-induced hearing loss in children from the excessive use of personal listening devices. The most important precaution for children, teenagers or adults using these devices is to keep the volume down and to limit listening time.
Hearing loss affects how a child talks. Typically, a baby learns to talk by listening to others. If hearing loss occurs at birth or in the first few years of life, it can have profound negative effects on a child's ability to learn to talk or learn language through the hearing sense.
"Of course it also affects later learning in school, particularly in reading and other subjects that are based on verbal abilities. If hearing loss goes undetected, children have speech problems and may exhibit behavior problems, because they don't understand what adults around them want. Fortunately, we know that if a congenital hearing loss is identified and early intervention is begun before six months of age, we can really optimize that child's ability to learn to talk and learn language through hearing.
"Of course, we also know that there are many deaf people who successfully teach their deaf children language through sign language, but 95 percent of all children with hearing loss have parents who are normal-hearing and the majority of these choose to communicate with their children with speech," she says.
"Treatment depends on the types of hearing loss I talked about.
"To treat an ear infection, a pediatrician or family physician may prescribe antibiotics, or may choose to wait to see if the ear infection resolves on its own.
"If this is not successful, the child might be referred to an otolaryngologist (or ear, nose and throat specialist) who may determine that a simple surgical procedure is necessary to treat the hearing loss.
"If, however, the hearing loss is the permanent sensorineural type, the usual first step in treatment is hearing aids and entry into early intervention. Any child with a newly diagnosed sensorineural hearing loss should see a pediatric otolaryngologist to help the family determine the cause of the hearing loss and evaluate whether any other conditions exist that require treatment.
"Fortunately we have some outstanding pediatric ear, nose and throat specialists here at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery."
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