Hearing Impairment Problems and Solutions

 

 

How Our Hearing Changes As We Grow

A child's hearing changes a lot until he is 4 to 8 years old.
Your child can hear things even before he's born.
After he's born, here's how his hearing changes:

At birth:

  • Responds to loud noises
  • Turns to the sound of his parents' voice

3 to 6 months:

  • Can hear softer sounds
  • Can tell one sound from another
  • Still can't hear all sounds

 

 

Causes of Hearing Loss

Is it my fault or not?

Parents often wonder if something they did caused their child's hearing loss. In most cases, the answer is "no."
Children may be born with a hearing loss.
Or they may get it after birth for other reasons.
You may never know for sure what caused your child's hearing loss.

Does it matter what caused it?

Knowing what caused your child's hearing loss may be helpful.

  • It can sometimes tell you how to treat the hearing loss.
  • It may alert you to other problems you should look for.
  • It may let you know whether your child's hearing loss may change as she grows.
  • It may tell you if other family members might develop hearing loss.

Here are some things that may cause hearing loss in babies and children

  1. Ear infections
  2. Infections during pregnancy
  3. Infections in the mother at birth
  4. Problems during birth
  5. Infections during infancy and childhood
  6. Medicine
  7. Noise
  8. Genetics

Ear infections

Ear infections and fluid in the ears may block sound from moving from the outer ear to the inner ear.

  • Blocking the sound can cause a mild or moderate hearing loss.
  • Doctors call this conductive hearing loss (con-DUC-tiv)
  • Usually this kind of hearing loss goes away when the infection clears up

What you can do

  • Give your child antibiotics or other medicine, if her doctor says to do so.
  • Take your child back for another checkup after you finish treatment. The doctor may want to recheck your child's ears and/or her hearing.
  • Talk to your doctor if your child's ear infections keep coming back. The doctor may want to place tiny tubes through your child's eardrums. The tubes let liquid drain out.
    This is done through surgery. Putting tubes in cuts down on your child's risk of having future ear infections and hearing loss.

Infections during pregnancy

Infections in a pregnant woman can cause hearing loss in her baby.
They may damage the baby's inner ear.

  • Doctors call this sensorineural hearing loss (sen-sor-ee-NUR-al). Some people call this "nerve deafness."
  • Only certain infections during pregnancy have been linked with hearing loss. Here are 4 examples:
    • German measles (rubella)
    • Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
    • Toxoplasmosis
    • Syphilis
  • Usually, infections in the mother will only hurt the baby's hearing during the first 3 months of her pregnancy. That's when the baby's hearing system is growing.

Infections in the mother at birth

Sometimes a mother can pass infections to her baby during birth.
Some of these infections can cause hearing loss in the baby, like:

  • Group B streptococcus (GBS)
  • Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)

Problems during birth

There are 3 things that can happen to a baby during birth that might cause hearing loss:

  • Not getting enough oxygen. This is called oxygen deprivation.
  • Having jaundice (JON-dis). With jaundice, the baby's skin looks yellow.
  • Getting hurt during birth. This called birth trauma (TRAW-ma).

These problems can cause certain types of hearing loss.

  • Jaundice and oxygen deprivation can cause sensorineural hearing loss. Again, some people call this "nerve deafness."
  • Birth trauma can cause central auditory dysfunction. This is a problem in the hearing pathway between the inner ear and the brain. A person with central auditory dysfunction may have trouble understanding the meaning of different sounds.

Infections during infancy and childhood

Certain childhood illnesses may damage the inner ear and result in hearing loss.

  • Bacterial and viral meningitis (men-in-JY-tis)
  • Mumps
  • Chicken pox

The high fevers that children get with these infections may also cause brain damage. This can lead to other disabilities.

Medicine

In some cases, certain medicines may damage the inner ear. They can cause hearing loss in certain people when they are used in high doses. Doctors know of at least 2 medicines that can sometimes cause this problem:

  • Gentamicin. This is an antibiotic.
  • Cisplatin (cis-PLAT-tin). This is a drug that fights cancer.

Noise

Noise can damage the structures of the inner ear. This can cause sensorineural hearing loss or "nerve deafness."

  • Hearing loud noises over a period of time may cause hearing loss.
  • Hearing a sudden loud noise can also cause hearing loss.
  • Read more about hearing loss caused by noise.

Genetics

Researchers think that up to half of all childhood hearing loss may be passed down through the family.

  • This may be true even when you don't know anyone else in your family who has a hearing loss.
  • To find out more about this subject, go to our section on the genetics of hearing loss.
  • Waardenburg Syndrome may cause hearing loss. This syndrome is genetic.

 

 

Signs of Hearing Loss

Read this page to learn about some signs of hearing loss.

As your child grows, does something seem wrong with her hearing?

Does she:

  • Sleep soundly even when you talk loudly near her?
  • Not babble anymore (after 9 months)?

Signs of normal hearing

If you think your child has a hearing loss, talk to your doctor. Also, read this timeline of normal things most hearing babies do.

Just remember, all children are different. They may not do all of these things on time:

From birth to 3 months:

  • React to loud noises
  • Wake up at loud sounds
  • Be soothed by the sound of your voice
  • Start making sounds in the back of her throat, like going "goo"

From 3 to 6 months:

  • React to the sound of your voice
  • Start turning her head or eyes towards sounds
  • Like playing with toys that make noise
  • Stop to listen to voices
  • Smile when someone talks to her
  • Cry in different ways when she needs different things. Like if she's hungry, or needs to be changed.

From 6 to 12 months:

  • Answer to her name
  • Make many different baby talk sounds
  • Start to understand simple words, like "mama," "dada," and "wave bye-bye"
  • Turn her head to familiar sounds, like a telephone ringing
  • React to changes in your tone of voice

By 12 months:

  • Copy sounds that she hears
  • Answer simple questions like, "Where's the ball?"
  • Recognize her name
  • Understand what "no" means

From 12 to 18 months:

  • Give you a toy when you ask her
  • Point to parts of the body when you ask her
  • Put sounds together
  • Use a few simple words, like "mama," "more," and "no."
  • Follow simple directions that you tell her

By 18 months:

  • Understand about 50 words

drawing of a green bird

By 2 years:

  • Understand yes and no questions
  • Use words that you often use at home or school
  • Make simple sentences
  • Follow simple orders without being shown what to do

By 2 ½ years:

  • Use about 270 words
  • Say or sing short rhymes and songs
  • Check out interesting sounds, or tell others about them

By 3 years:

  • Make simple sentences of 3 to 4 words
  • Use about 1,000 words
  • Be able to tell a story
  • Know her name and the names of people in her family
  • Sing songs

 

 

Learning Disabilities

If you think your child has a learning disability, have someone who knows deafness and learning disabilities test your child.

Then get help early

Many children who are deaf have learning disabilities.
And many children with learning disabilities have a hearing loss.

Many people don't realize until they're older that they struggled so much with school because of a learning disability. This is especially true for children who are deaf.

What a learning disability is

A learning disability (dis-a-bill-i-tee) is a problem that makes it hard for people to understand what they see and hear. This can make it harder for your child to learn in school. Hearing children with learning disabilities can have problems with:

  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Paying attention
  • Self-control

Deafness makes it harder to overcome learning disabilities. Learning problems make it harder to read or understand what people are saying or signing.

Sometimes your child may act out because he gets very frustrated and angry. Learning can be so hard!

Learning disabilities and deafness sometimes get mixed up

Many learning disabilities affect how a child speaks, writes or does math.
But deaf children are often behind schedule for learning some of these skills. So people often think the problem is just because of the deafness.

There are different kinds of learning disabilities

  • A learning disability that makes it hard for people to understand words and how they go together is called dyslexia.
    • Deaf children can have dyslexia for both written and signed words.
  • A learning disability that makes it hard for people to solve math problems is called dyscalculia.
  • A learning disability that makes it hard for people to write letters correctly is called dysgraphia.

What causes learning disabilities

No one knows why some children have learning disabilities while others don't. But some things that cause deafness can also cause learning disabilities. Here are some things that can cause hearing loss and learning disabilities:

  • Infections when babies are still in the mother's womb:
    • German measles. (Half of children born with German measles have a hearing loss. A quarter of children born with German measles have learning disabilities.)
    • CMV - a viral infection
  • When the baby is born too early
  • Problems in the baby's genes
  • Infections when the child is young:
    • Meningitis - when the tissue around the brain and spinal cord get infected and swell up.