Hearing Aids For Your Children
Good hearing is vital for your child's development, particularly for language and speech, social skills, and educational achievement. A lot of research has been done on the development of children who are severely to profoundly deaf but, until recently, much less was known about children who have mild to severe hearing loss. If you are concerned that your child may be losing his, or her, hearing, then the best thing to do is to visit a professional audiologist, like Clarisound, as soon as possible.
Advancements In Hearing Care
In an attempt to learn more about treating the large number of children with mild hearing loss researchers at the University of Iowa researchers have been following 300 children with hearing loss for nearly 14 years. Among the many findings of the study two main ones have emerged; firstly, a large number of children’s hearing aids aren't fitted appropriately for their hearing loss and, secondly, many children don't wear their hearing aids for large parts of the day. Elizabeth Walker, Associate Professor in the University of Iowa says, “We were pretty surprised by how many—about 35%—of the kids’ hearing aids were not fitted optimally, which limits how much they can actually help them.” Regarding children not wearing their hearing aids all day, Professor Walker explains why this finding is not surprising saying, “There can be a stigma attached to wearing hearing aids. Kids just want to fit in with their peers.”
Hearing Aids For Your Child's Development
Further commenting on the results of the research Professor Walker says the evidence clearly shows differences between the growth rates of language skills between children who have appropriately fitted hearing aids, and wear them, and those who don’t. Walker says, “We see kids whose hearing aids aren’t fitted appropriately falling further behind as they get older. We see that same trend in terms of hearing aid use. The kids who wear their hearing aids more than 10 hours per day show this steep growth trajectory, but the kids who wear the hearing aids less than 10 hours per day show the opposite trajectory where they’re falling further behind.”
If you are concerned that your child may be losing their hearing then please don't hesitate to book an appointment with one of our friendly, professional audiologists at Clarisound. We will help you to find and fit a suitable hearing aid for your child. We offer a variety of sizes, styles and prices to choose from. At Clarisound we will help restore your children's hearing so they can develop to the best of their abilities.