Has your child been struggling to keep up in conversation, having trouble at school with listening attentively, or turning the TV up at home?
We often associate hearing loss with an older age bracket, which makes sense, as age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) is the number one cause of hearing loss. However, struggling to hear doesn’t just affect those in their golden years – our children can have hearing loss challenges, too.
If you’re reading this and wondering if your child is facing a hearing loss challenge, don’t worry; your child isn’t alone. Even back in 2001, the Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics estimated that 12.5% of children ages 6-19 had some degree of noise-induced hearing loss – by today’s standards, those numbers will be much higher.
How did my child develop hearing loss?
Most children with hearing loss are born with it. However, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a type of hearing loss that is on the rise amongst both children and adults. When we think of noise-induced hearing loss, we often imagine one loud, explosive event that leaves our ears ringing, like in the movies. This isn’t always the case, though.
Noise-induced hearing loss is due to the cumulative effects of too much noise exposure, listening to prolonged loud noises. Volume plus duration equals damage.
How long does your child sit with earbuds in or headphones on, listening to music or playing video games with friends? After hours of exposure, even just a few decibels above 85 dB can overwhelm and damage the hearing-related cells in our ears.
It’s important to make sure your child is monitoring the volume on their different devices; many come with volume management settings that can help you lock the max volume at a certain level.
Even if you have to play the boring parent role by telling your kids to turn down the volume, it could save their hearing in the long run – so it’s worth it to be “uncool” for just a little while and keep their ears safe and sound.
Concerned about Your Child’s Hearing?
As parents, we want to make sure our kids are as happy and healthy as possible. There’s nothing more panic-inducing than thinking your child might need help; if you’re concerned about your child’s hearing, we understand that you want to safeguard it as quickly as you can.
We have hearing care specifically for young children or teenagers that will put them first throughout the testing process – even if that means being especially patient with nervous children or taking more than one appointment to assess their hearing.
If you have questions you’d like answered, or concerns about your child’s unique situation, please feel free to request a callback and a member of our team will be in contact to help.
Alternatively, you can call us at your nearest office for a more immediate conversation.
