Child Hearing Difficulties

Saint_Mel

After failing 2 development check hearing tests, an waiting 2 years for an audiology appointment, yesterday we found out our 2[SIZE="-2"]1/2[/SIZE] year old has severe hearing difficulties.

To be honest, although we did suspect some issue as his pronunciation was a little off, the actual results we were shown on the graph hit us for 6. While he (well we thought) responds well 90% of the time, when he had the test, the results show him very much below the "normal" threshold. According to the audiologist, even with grommets and hearing aids, his levels will never be up to that level and he will need speech and language assistance and an sna when he gets to school going age.

We've a GP appointment this week to get a referral to a ENT specialist so apparently when he gets grommets then he will be taken in 4 weeks later to have heading aids fitted.

Just wondering can anyone else who has been through similar advise on how they proceeded with things? To be honest I'm probably not even sure what I'm asking as I'm still fairly bowled over by the extent of the news.

susiewoosie

Hi Mel,

I work with the Irish Deaf Society and as no-one else has responded, I thought I would (hopefully others will, especially parents of any deaf and hard of hearing children)

I'm Deaf too so know the importance that parents have access to information - there is a great Parent support group which I would advise you contact - details are:
Sharing the Journey,
www.sharingthejourney.ie
Phone/Text: +353 86 7225659

The IDS also published a guidebook for parents -(attached to this post) which may be a useful guide to you as you explore what it means for you and your family to have a Deaf child

Our website is currently being renovated - and there is some information here (bear in mind, its a little over the place) http://www.irishdeafsociety.ie/information-for-parents.html

The website also lists a number of organisations that you may want to contact too,









After failing 2 development check hearing tests, an waiting 2 years for an audiology appointment, yesterday we found out our 2[SIZE="-2"]1/2[/SIZE] year old has severe hearing difficulties.

To be honest, although we did suspect some issue as his pronunciation was a little off, the actual results we were shown on the graph hit us for 6. While he (well we thought) responds well 90% of the time, when he had the test, the results show him very much below the "normal" threshold. According to the audiologist, even with grommets and hearing aids, his levels will never be up to that level and he will need speech and language assistance and an sna when he gets to school going age.

We've a GP appointment this week to get a referral to a ENT specialist so apparently when he gets grommets then he will be taken in 4 weeks later to have heading aids fitted.

Just wondering can anyone else who has been through similar advise on how they proceeded with things? To be honest I'm probably not even sure what I'm asking as I'm still fairly bowled over by the extent of the news.[/QUOTE]

Saint_Mel

Thanks so much for the reply an info. Much appreciated.

maryk123

Sent you pm

Roquentin

I know a guy in a similar predicament. Its tough. Even with his hearing aid he cant hear fully. When we go out, the noise in the pub then drowns out his hearing. And he has to look at people to know what they are saying. His job opportunites are limited as well because his communication is not fluid in that he has to ask people to repeat themselves.

A hearing aid is a bit like a prosthetic leg, in that it only improves the situation but doesnt make it perfect.

Picking the actual hearing aid is vital. My friend said he had a torrid time in school cause all the other kids used make fun of him cause of his hearing aid. Try and get one that is hidden in the ear canal.

I wont lie. Its a tough life

joanmul

Roquentin wrote: »

Picking the actual hearing aid is vital. My friend said he had a torrid time in school cause all the other kids used make fun of him cause of his hearing aid. Try and get one that is hidden in the ear canal.

I wont lie. Its a tough life

An in-the-ear aid might not be good enough so being aware of social problems and helping to deal with them has to be a high priority. I don't think children will give your child a bad time just because he has a problem. If he's happy that is his biggest defence.

Roquentin

joanmul wrote: »

An in-the-ear aid might not be good enough so being aware of social problems and helping to deal with them has to be a high priority. I don't think children will give your child a bad time just because he has a problem. If he's happy that is his biggest defence.

Children can be cruel.

He hated wearing the behind the ear ones because he said they looked strange. And at that age they are all trying to fit in and so on. He felt a bit alienated.

Im not going to lie and say it all ends out perfect. When he goes out he cant hear because the background noise is so loud. When he is in a room with multiple people, he struggles to hear as people talking among each other. I remember actually playing soccer and the manager would be roaring at him to do something and he wouldnt hear him. I suppose he was lucky he could not hear him cause the manager used shout some abuse at us!!

To use an analogy, people with poor vision see blurred images. People with bad hearing hear a sound, but it is muffled.

People take their hearing for granted. One of the things a person with good hearing can do, is if three people are talking at once, they can zone in on a particular person to hear. Hard of hearing people cant do that. They prefer one on one conversations.

Technology is now advancing quick, so hearing aids are becoming smaller but better. Recently as well they regrew the cilia (the hairs that vibrate in your canal) in a lab, so that has potential.

My advice: small hearing aid, both ears and a good one.

the_syco

What age is the kid, and how bad is the hearing? In the ear hearing aids may not be useful if the hearing is too bad, but technology is coming forwards nicely. Two decades ago, I had one on the back of my ear, now I can have ones in the ear (but not the canal, as my hearing is too bad).

Kids pick on those they perceive as weak. The hearing aid is just an angle. Nose, glasses, hair colour are others.

=-=

Get his sight checked out, and if it's okay, look into learning how to speak to the kid so he picks up lip reading. I think it's something parents need to learn to do. They can learn at a later stage to lip read, but the earlier the better. If they learn how to lip read before school, they'll have an advantage.

murphydublin

joanmul wrote: »

An in-the-ear aid might not be good enough so being aware of social problems and helping to deal with them has to be a high priority. I don't think children will give your child a bad time just because he has a problem. If he's happy that is his biggest defence.

My daughter has bi lateral sensonural hearing loss and got her first hearing aids at 18 months. She is 11 now and thankfully her speech is perfect , she lips reads alot and uses subtitles on tv. She is v concious of the aids now and wanted the in the canal ones but as she uses a microlink - teacher wears a mike which speaks directly to the aids - this will not be possible while she is in education. Advances are coming all the time tho so who knows.

it was hard dealing with the news Op and personally i felt guilt and helplessness but kids that age dont know life any different and adapt well .

murphydublin

Just to note that my daughters hearing is much worse on one side but they insisted on two aids as if you depend on one ear only you become language deaf in the other.

a wonderful lady called Sr Lydia was a big help to us starting out, she is famous among parents of newly diagnosed hard of hearing children

Roquentin

murphydublin wrote: »

My daughter has bi lateral sensonural hearing loss and got her first hearing aids at 18 months. She is 11 now and thankfully her speech is perfect , she lips reads alot and uses subtitles on tv. She is v concious of the aids now and wanted the in the canal ones but as she uses a microlink - teacher wears a mike which speaks directly to the aids - this will not be possible while she is in education. Advances are coming all the time tho so who knows.

it was hard dealing with the news Op and personally i felt guilt and helplessness but kids that age dont know life any different and adapt well .

It is advancing quickly. The devices are getting smaller and more powerful. What will eventually happen is the regrowing of the defective organ(s) within the ear using stem cells or something similar. Another technology that maybe be big in the future with regards hearing is nano technology.

My advice would be keep them as small as possible. People that age get self conscious and being self conscious can lead to further problems. Girls can use the long hair to hide the hearing aid which may help.

Saint_Mel

Just a small update on our situation. We got in to see an ENT specialist and after reading the audiologist results, and seeing the lad interacting with us, he does not think the results are an accurate reflection!

There is a lot of fluid in the ears which, as he has never had an ear infection before, the doc reckons it might have been picked up as an infection when he was in hospital with asthma/bronchitis. (He was hospitalised twice in his first year and a half, a wonderful case of crappy lungs I passed on to him!)

We are booked in to get grommets in a couple of weeks, and he will do his own audiology tests and take it from there on making a call on hearing aids.
We are also in line to get speech therapy too so all in all things are moving quickly and we are in a lot more positive place since my original post

Roquentin

I think as well depending on the severity of the hearing loss, that a enrolling him in a school that caters for deaf or hard of hearing students wouldnt be a bad idea. The fact that he would be among other children who wear hearing aids or are in the same predicament, would be beneficial.

RainyDay

Roquentin wrote: »

I think as well depending on the severity of the hearing loss, that a enrolling him in a school that caters for deaf or hard of hearing students wouldnt be a bad idea. The fact that he would be among other children who wear hearing aids or are in the same predicament, would be beneficial.

How would segregation be beneficial?

Roquentin

RainyDay wrote: »

How would segregation be beneficial?

Because kids will segregate regardless. Kids will be kids. They look at others and themselves are divide. Kids could have glasses, they could be from a different ethnic background, they could be a different religion. I am not saying it will happen, but if you are different, you can be discriminated.

Bullying is not so much physical but rather emotional. You wonder why guys like elliot rodgers go off in killing sprees in america, its because they were teased and bullied when younger.

Imagine putting a catholic raised kid in among protestant raised kids in the north. Kids dont know any better. Eventually they grow out of it.

Humans are social animals and tend to herd together with people similar to themselves and that builds confidence. So you have chinese people in one group lets say in college and you might have guys who smoke weed in another group.

So being involved when young in groups that help build confidence is important. Thats all i am saying.

RainyDay

Roquentin wrote: »

Because kids will segregate regardless. Kids will be kids. They look at others and themselves are divide. Kids could have glasses, they could be from a different ethnic background, they could be a different religion. I am not saying it will happen, but if you are different, you can be discriminated.

Bullying is not so much physical but rather emotional. You wonder why guys like elliot rodgers go off in killing sprees in america, its because they were teased and bullied when younger.

Imagine putting a catholic raised kid in among protestant raised kids in the north. Kids dont know any better. Eventually they grow out of it.

Humans are social animals and tend to herd together with people similar to themselves and that builds confidence. So you have chinese people in one group lets say in college and you might have guys who smoke weed in another group.

So being involved when young in groups that help build confidence is important. Thats all i am saying.

I know it's a contentious topic, and I'm not telling anyone how to live their life, but my view would be that a mainstream setting is a lot better for a child over a segregated setting, unless the child has fairly severe disabilities that require specialist care or teaching methods.

Yes, humans are social animals, and children are generally a lot more accepting of difference than adults, unless/until they are taught to discriminate. Schools, and students and society in general is getting better about dealing with bullying or discrimination.

There is a big danger of labelling a child through segregation. Many students with hearing loss can cope well in classrooms, with appropriate equipment, such as hearing loops or FM systems. In Australia and some parts of the UK, they are providing live real-time captioning for students with hearing loss to make sure they can keep up with classroom discussions.

Roquentin

Schools, and students and society in general is getting better about dealing with bullying or discrimination.

Its getting better among adults, but bullying by children on other children is more difficult to eradicate. If someone at work is harassing you they could lose their job. If a child is a bully, the best that can happen him is he gets a few lines to write out. It is a very hard issue to deal with.

There is a big danger of labelling a child through segregation.

I understand your point. but he would be segregated in an environment with children who have good hearing. If you put him in an environment with other children who have similar disabilities, he cant be segregated by other children, because they are all on the same level (not being rude).

In america they encountered a similar problem in the 60's, when they opened up the universities to all students, regardless of race. What happened in some uni's is that only a few black students went into the all white institution and were on their own. You are guaranteed at least one kid in every class who is self absorbed and vain and will pick on someone. Bullys themselves usually have bad self perception and take it out on someone else.

Many students with hearing loss can cope well in classrooms, with appropriate equipment, such as hearing loops or FM systems. In Australia and some parts of the UK, they are providing live real-time captioning for students with hearing loss to make sure they can keep up with classroom discussions.

Thats totally true. I dont disagree with it. Its not the learning i have an issue with, but the segregation. Confidence is so important when growing up. The best thing parents can give their children is not money or straight teeth, but confidence to go out into the big bad world and make something of themselves.

So hes there in a school and has to wear a big hearing aid, while all the other kids dont. How does it make him feel? It would work if there was 5/6 kids who are hard of hearing in the class with him. Just so he has a group of friends who can relate to each other.

You might think i am making a big issue and to be fair its a huge problem in america. Kids are in a popularity contest (not all of them) and if you dont have the latest i phone you are teased. Thats how its starts out. a little teasing and then more heavy.

If i was putting him into a conventional school, id be thinking the hearing aid should be as small as possible.


Edit: You will be segregated regardless anyway in life. Go around to a secondary school, you have the hurlers, the skaters, the socializers, the studyiers. Segregation is a fact of life. What we do is we seek out safety in the herd. There is nothing worse than being segregated on your own.

RainyDay

I don't think it's quite far to say that 'all that will happen is that they will get a few lines'. Schools are taking these things more and more seriously. THe Dept's regulations specifically highlight the additional risk of bullying of students who are different. But of course, bullying can happen. And students with disabilities can be bullies too. There is nothing magical about a group of students with disabilities, and indeed, some might take out their other frustrations through bullying on others.

Confidence is indeed important, but it's not the only thing. Preparation for adult life is important too. Setting expectations that you will lead a full and productive adult working life is important too. One teacher in a deaf school told me some time back that she got nothing done on Mondays and Fridays with the Leaving cert class as they were out drinking away their Disability Allowance. Society had sent them a message to say 'You'll never be any good, so here's a little bit of welfare to keep you quiet', and many took on this message at an early stage and live it out.

joanmul

I am also in favour of mainstream education for hearing impaired children if at all possible. I think it is a far better preparation for integration in society as adults. The drinking on the weekends, while not exclusive to a deaf school, is symptomatic of 'prepare to fail, fail to prepare'. Also, why do you think bullying might be exclusive to mainstream education? I would be very surprised to be told there is none in a deaf school. It is just the way some children behave. One of my children, when she was small, was a bit sensitive and she definitely was picked on for a while, but, thankfully, it fizzled out. My point being - children will find some apparent flaw.

Roquentin

joanmul wrote: »

I am also in favour of mainstream education for hearing impaired children if at all possible. I think it is a far better preparation for integration in society as adults. The drinking on the weekends, while not exclusive to a deaf school, is symptomatic of 'prepare to fail, fail to prepare'. Also, why do you think bullying might be exclusive to mainstream education? I would be very surprised to be told there is none in a deaf school. It is just the way some children behave. One of my children, when she was small, was a bit sensitive and she definitely was picked on for a while, but, thankfully, it fizzled out. My point being - children will find some apparent flaw.

I didnt say it was mainstream. Bullying is everywhere, but if you are all on the same level it is less likely to happen. If you had one kid of a different ethnic background, in among kids of a similar background, they could pick on him. But if you have a group of kids from a different ethnic background in the same class/school, they are less likely to be bullied because they will have their own group.

RainyDay

Roquentin wrote: »

But if you have a group of kids from a different ethnic background in the same class/school, they are less likely to be bullied because they will have their own group.

So you're in favour of separate schools for black kids then?

Roquentin

RainyDay wrote: »

So you're in favour of separate schools for black kids then?

I was using it as an analogy. Read what i said. A group of kids within a school.

You have been to college i assume. You will see all these pockets of groups. Chinese students, black students, mature students and so on. Why?

They seek our safety within the herd of their own group.

RainyDay

Roquentin wrote: »

I was using it as an analogy. Read what i said. A group of kids within a school.

Sorry, I was being a bit of a smart-ass. But you get my point.

Roquentin wrote: »

You have been to college i assume. You will see all these pockets of groups. Chinese students, black students, mature students and so on. Why?

They seek our safety within the herd of their own group.

Perhaps because they have been segregated throughout much of their previous education?