Hearing issues in babies and young children can go undiagnosed for a long time. After all, it can be hard to notice when your child isn’t able to hear you, especially if they’re at an age where they can’t really communicate the problem to you.
As the parent, you’re going to need to know the signs of hearing issues from a young age – but that doesn’t automatically make them an easy thing to spot!
So let’s try and get a bit more practical here. If you have a nagging feeling that your baby or toddler may have a hearing problem, here’s how you can investigate.
Watch How They Respond to Sounds
This is probably the first thing that set the alarm bells ringing in your head. Because when you make noise around your child, they don’t really react.
You can smash two frying pans together right next to their head and it doesn’t startle them or wake them up from their nap. And you’d know that for sure, as you’ve actually tried it out.
And when you talk to your child, you need to make sure you’re in their sight line. Otherwise you can’t be sure they’re going to react to your voice or what you’re saying. Older children can make this a bit more obvious for you, as they will be able to actually tell you they didn’t hear what you just said.
But when you’re dealing with an infant, knowing about this need for eye contact is crucial in determining whether or not your child can hear you.
If any of this is the case with your baby or toddler, there’s a good chance they’re dealing with a missed connection or two within their inner ears. Get them checked out by a doctor as soon as you’re able to.
Take Them to a Hearing Test
Most kids will get their hearing tested by their local school authorities when they first start attending. However, if your child has hearing issues before they’re a year old, noticing these challenges early on is key to making their school years less of a struggle.
Of course, you’ll want to bring your concerns over your child’s hearing to your usual doctor first of all. Get them to check your child over and look for any obvious signs of issues with their ears, and then see if they can refer you to an audiology doctor who can get the test done.
If you’d rather go straight to the audiologist, you can also do so. Self refer your child to an audiology center that specializes in early years’ medicine and book an appointment.
Either way, the sooner you get your child in to see a doctor about potential hearing loss, the sooner you can start to help them understand the world around them.
If you’re worried about your child’s level of hearing, test a few things out to double check, and get them seen by an audiology doctor when you can.
