What will happen if my child has a diagnosed hearing loss?
Your child will meet regularly with a pediatric audiologist and may have repeated tests to get a very accurate understanding of the level of deficiency. Then, the most likely course of treatment is that your child will receive hearing aids in either one or both ears.
Hearing aids come in a variety of styles and can be worn in different ways, inside or outside the body, depending on the age of your child and tolerance to wearing them. It also depends on your child’s level of hearing loss and her individual situation. Most children who may be put off by wearing them at first, will eventually discover that the aids connect them to friends, peers, teachers, and family in a more fulfilling way.
Unfortunately, hearing aids are expensive and sometimes are not covered by insurance. This is an issue which I personally find appalling.
Children whose hearing loss is more profound and do not benefit from hearing aids may be helped by a cochlear implant. A common misconception is that a cochlear implant restores hearing, but it does not. What it does is bypass the damaged cochlea and transmits sound information directly to the hearing nerve.
Will my child need to attend a special class or school?
That depends on whether, with hearing aids, your child can function normally in a classroom. A hearing impaired child with average intelligence should ideally attend a regular school class if he can communicate effectively with his teacher and classmates. Even a child with some speech difficulties can benefit from a regular classroom setting where his teacher can give special attention to his needs (moving him closer to the front, facing the class as she gives instruction, providing written instructions for more complicated assignments, etc.)
Your child may also require speech therapy where one or more times a week she meets with a speech and language pathologist. (See my blog post, “Children with Speech or Language Impairment” for more information.) If your child’s hearing, speech, or language impairments cannot be dealt with in a regular classroom setting, your child’s school district should conduct a full and individual evaluation to determine what services would best help your child.
Children with hearing impairments are eligible for special education services, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004.
For More information, Visit the National Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) website, or the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities webpage: “Deafness and Hearing Loss.”
I will write about deafness, where a child’s hearing loss is so profound that hearing cannot be used to communicate, in a future blog.