What to look for:
Babies:
From birth to 9 months, a baby should startle at loud noises, respond to your voice and start smiling on return to familiar sounds. They then start to realise that toys can make sounds and babbling patterns emerge. From 9 to 24 months, a baby is more aware of environmental sounds and start to copy what they hear. This is crucial for them to learn to understand spoken language as well as produce words.
Hospitals usually do routine hearing screening at birth to rule out any possible difficulties.
Toddlers and early school years
Toddlers should have developed a solid vocabulary base to build their expressive languages on. At this age, toddlers are very susceptible to upper-air-way infections that can result in middle-ear pathology. Signs to observe include: a delayed response to sounds saying “what?” or “huh?” several times a day, and increasing the TV volume incredibly high or sitting to close to the TV. A delay in speech and language development can also indicate hearing difficulties.
If you are concerned you can have your child’s hearing evaluated. All children should receive a hearing screening in their Grade R year to rule out any complications before entering formal education.
Older children and teenagers
Some children may pass traditional tests, but still struggle to listen and understand speech, particularly speech in noisy environments. They may ask to repeat what you have said many times, and struggle to differentiate between similar sounding words. School aged children that face challenges in both reading and spelling may indicate difficulty in auditory processing. This suggests that although their ears can detect sounds effectively, their brains may struggle with accurately interpreting them.
Exposure to loud noise can also cause noise-induced hearing loss. It is important to limit use of headphones. Excessive headphone use may lead to hearing damage, even if you are not listening to loud volumes. Try not to use headphones for more than an hour a day. Keep the volume low. Whether you are using headphones or listening to music at home or in the car, do not increase the volume up past sixty percent of the maximum.
Use protection when needed. If you know you are going to be around loud noise for an extended period of time, you should protect your ears using earplugs or noise cancelling headphones. Book for a full diagnostic hearing test if you are concerned.
By Deon Ceronio
