{"id":18686,"date":"2025-03-21T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/bloemfontein\/?p=18686"},"modified":"2025-03-19T12:11:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T10:11:57","slug":"is-your-child-really-a-troublemaker-or-can-they-just-not-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/bloemfontein\/blog\/2025\/03\/21\/is-your-child-really-a-troublemaker-or-can-they-just-not-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your child really a troublemaker or can they just not hear?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifteen percent of school-aged children have impaired hearing which often gets misdiagnosed or interpreted as naughtiness. Here\u2019s what parents need to know about picking up hearing impairment in their children.<\/h3>\n

In 2012, speech language therapist and audiologist, Venisha Naran, did a routine hearing screening for a Grade 1 learner at a private school in Johannesburg. The referral came with a brief. \u201cThey said they didn\u2019t think there was anything wrong with her ears, but she had recently arrived from China and didn\u2019t understand much English,\u201d says Naran.<\/p>\n

Naran screened the child. Then she screened her again to check her findings. She sent the little girl home with a note requesting a meeting with her parents: It wasn\u2019t the English that she was struggling with \u2013 she had hearing impairment in both ears.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the learner\u2019s school career, Naran fitted her with three sets of hearing aids. Last year she passed matric in a mainstream school and is currently studying engineering. \u201cI think if it had not been picked up, they would have just always thought her learning issues were because of the second language when, in fact, she couldn’t hear,\u201d says Naran.<\/p>\n

Screenings give children a future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of every thousand babies born, up to three will be born with hearing impairment, says Naran. Other children may develop ear infections that can lead to temporary or permanent hearing loss if not picked up and treated. The problem is young children often don\u2019t even realise they have impaired hearing because they don\u2019t know anything different.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, they just compensate for it,\u201d says Naran. She shares an example a little boy who couldn\u2019t hear in one ear. He would turn his head to listen and use the phone on one side only. But he didn\u2019t know why he was doing that, and his mom didn\u2019t notice until his hearing impairment came to light during a screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids often can\u2019t tell you that they can\u2019t hear,\u201d says Naran, \u201cand so they\u2019re often seen as the child not listening or not following instructions or being oppositional. But it\u2019s actually that they\u2019re the child who can\u2019t hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signs your child is struggling to hear<\/strong><\/p>\n

Poor hearing manifests in many ways, some of them unexpected:<\/p>\n