Question: Once an infant is found to have hearing problems, is it better to wear hearing aids as soon as possible?Compared with adults, is there any difference in the selection of hearing aids for children?Are there any places to pay special attention to?
Answer: Children’s hearing impairment is not easy to detect because they will not tell you.Unfortunately, normal hearing is a necessary condition for the development of normal speech.Human language development has the so-called “critical period” or “optimum period”, which is about two years old.If there is no proper auditory stimulation during this period, it will cause slow or abnormal language development.This has caused great obstacles to personal communication in society.Therefore, it is one of the very important tasks of audiologists to find children’s hearing impairment as early as possible to treat or rehabilitate.
Every advanced country in the world has measures for children’s hearing screening.The purpose of the recent comprehensive newborn screening in the United States is to detect hearing-impaired children as soon as possible.Of course, we understand that severe and extremely severe children need hearing aids, but there are many parents who mistakenly believe that mild hearing impairment will not affect children’s learning.In fact, current research believes that even minor hearing impairments, such as conductive hearing impairment caused by otitis media, put children at a disadvantage in learning.They will struggle in a darker environment or when listening to distant sounds.And the average intellectual education performance is worse than that of normal children.The difference in language ability can be seen even at the age of nine.In addition, even children with normal hearing on one side and abnormal hearing on the other side are currently found to be poor or slow in all aspects of learning.It shows that rehabilitation is not only needed for severe hearing impaired children, but also for mild hearing impaired children! www.jhhearingaids.com
Children are different from adults in terms of anatomy, physiology and hearing needs. Therefore, there are some different considerations in the selection of hearing aids. I will explain these differences in the following aspects:
What level of hearing loss do I need to wearHearing aid?Children’s hearing needs are different from adults, because their language skills are developing, and adults have already developed them.In other words, children need to hear more clearly than adults.Normally, the standard of normal hearing within XNUMX decibels for adults cannot be directly applied to children.Although there is no definite standard to distinguish whether children are normal or not, the more accepted one is XNUMX decibels.According to the research report mentioned above, it is best to use for minor hearing impaired.Hearing aid, Or actively treat otitis media, and unilateral hearing impairment is no exception.
Understanding the extent of a child’s hearing loss is a prerequisite for deciding whether he should wear a hearing aid and what the amplification rate of the hearing aid should be.Children’s hearing tests are different from adults, because they will not tell you whether you have heard or not, so some behavioral observations or electrophysiological tests are needed to estimate the hearing threshold.Even so, the hearing results of young children are still not completely credible, and many children’s hearing will change over time, so the hearing assessment must be carried out regularly and many times.The following are the recommended hearing test methods and procedures for children of different ages:
Birth to four months: Auditory brainstem response -> Otoacoustic transmission test -> Middle ear pressure test -> Behavior observation
Five to twenty-four months: Behavioral hearing test -> Middle ear pressure test -> Otoacoustic transmission test -> Auditory brainstem response
Twenty-five to twenty-six months: behavioral hearing test -> voice hearing test -> middle ear pressure test ->
Otoacoustic radiography test -> auditory brainstem response
It is very important that it is best to make a comprehensive judgment based on the results of multiple inspections, rather than relying solely on the results of a certain inspection.
The goal of matching children’s hearing aids is the same as that of adults. They are to amplify the voice so that they can hear it, but do not want to make it too loud to cause discomfort or cause further damage.The differences from adults are as follows:
Since children’s hearing threshold may not be very accurate when measured, and it is also easy to change with age, so the transfer aid allocated to children must be very flexible, that is, it can be in a larger range Internal adjustments are made for changes in physical strength thresholds.
Many children need assistive listening devices (ALD), such as FM or Telecoil, to help them learn.Therefore, it is best to connect hearing aids directly to these devices. ALD is of great help to the learning of hearing impaired children, and there will be special articles for discussion in the future.
Children’s ear canals are still growing, and they do not operate small Chinese-made hearing aids by themselves, so they are usually equipped with earhooks.Children over eight to ten years old may consider in-ear type.In order to avoid water activities or sweating that may damage the hearing aids, it is best to use waterproof materials or add waterproof covers.
When choosing the ear mold material, it is best to be as soft as possible. At the same time, it should be considered close to the skin color. Of course, there are also colors available.
Unless there are special circumstances, in principle, both sides are matched, so that children can develop the ability of hearing on both sides.Exceptional cases are known as unilateral atresia of the external auditory canal.
In terms of the effectiveness of hearing aids, there are also differences between children and adults:
The biggest difference is that children do not express subjective feelings.So the traditional <comparative method> such as asking “Which hearing aid sounds best” or “How is the sound quality? Will it be too noisy?” and so on are not suitable for children.
There must be objective evaluation standards.The objective method is the so-called real ear test.Therefore, the real ear test plays a very important role in the evaluation of children’s hearing aids.The external auditory canal of children from zero to eight years old is still growing, and its anatomical and physiological characteristics are also changing at any time, so it is extremely inappropriate to use the average value of adults.Therefore, it is emphasized here that individual real ear tests must be done on each child in order to measure individual differences.
Secondly, because children cannot express themselves, the opinions of parents and teachers become very important.Parents and teachers are the ones who usually communicate with their children the most. How are their learning progress? Are hearing aids helpful? Parents and teachers can often provide useful information.
The last point is that it is very important to systematically track and monitor all hearing impaired children and their hearing aids.Because children’s hearing often changes, the reasons for the changes include otitis media or changes in the inner ear.Therefore, it is generally recommended to check the hearing and the function of the hearing aid every three months during the first year of wearing the hearing aid made in China.Ear molds are also checked every three months.It can be checked once every two to six months before school age, and it must be tracked once a year after going to elementary school.
