About Children
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Your Baby's Hearing
All aspects of your child's first few years of life are critical to his or her development. Hearing plays an important role in your child's language, speech and social development.
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The Importance of Hearing
Speech and language skills come from your child’s hearing ability. If a child loses some or all of her hearing, this will reflect in her use of language. For example, a young child builds their vocabulary by listening to others say different words. If the child misses a lot of words because they cannot hear them, the number of words they will learn to say may be behind. Your child’s speech is also at risk while experiencing hearing loss since he or she may not learn to say words properly if they are not able to hear exactly how the word is pronounced.
Social development relies upon hearing ability because hearing loss at a young age can cause important experiences to be missed.
For example, the ways people usually act in certain social situations are called social "norms". Children pick up on these "norms" and use these social skills throughout their whole lives. When children miss out on picking up typical behaviours in social situations, their social development is being affected.
How Can it Happen?
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Because part of your child’s development relies upon their hearing ability, it is important to recognize hearing loss as soon as possible to lessen or prevent problems that are caused by hearing loss. Most hearing losses in young children are temporary, or medically treatable. Some conditions are likely to cause a hearing problem that comes and goes, such as: |
Some children will have permanent hearing loss. Certain factors in a child’s history may increase the chance of permanent hearing loss, such as:
- a family member with permanent hearing loss since childhood
- very low birthweight - less than three pounds
- serious infection present at birth (such as toxoplasmosis, herpes, cytomegalovirus or rubella)
- baby required neonatal intensive care (NICU)
- unusual appearance of the baby's head, face or ears
- baby required exchange blood transfusion
- serious injury to the head
- disorder of the brain or nervous system
- too much noise exposure
- certain childhood illnesses like measles, mumps, or meningitis
- certain medicines used to treat serious illness
The earlier a hearing loss is detected, the earlier help can be provided.
What Parents Can Do
To try to avoid developmental problems while your child has temporary hearing loss, here are actions that you can take as a parent.
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For permanent hearing loss, there is help. Contact your local physician or audiologist.
Warning Signs
Since babies can't tell you about hearing problems, parents, need to watch for warning signs. If you start noticing any of these warning signs in your child, contact your physician or an Audiologist as soon as possible.
It is never too early to ask for a hearing test.
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Milestones Checklist
As your child develops, he or she will reach milestones in which you can follow along to measure development concerning their hearing ability. Use this Healthy Hearing Milestone Checklist and if your child does not do some of the things, have his or her hearing checked.
Fore information on your child's hearing, visit:
British Columbia Early Hearing Program
Effects of Hearing Loss on Development
Speak, Read, Succeed Interactive Checklist
