Hearing loss is one of the most common forms of disability in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to three in 1,000 children have some degree of hearing loss.
While hearing loss doesn’t necessarily increase the risk of a child developing certain conditions or ailments, it can impact development. At school, kids with hearing problems may experience certain learning difficulties. Namely, delayed speech and language skills, issues with lesson comprehension, and even problems making friends. Fortunately, there are ways that parents can help their children overcome these difficulties. Here are a few of them:
Give your child hearing aids they’re comfortable with
Among children, hearing aids are useful devices that not only help them manage their surroundings but also support them in picking up on critical developmental milestones. This includes everything from their teachers’ lessons to the social cues their peers might display. So, if your child’s doctor has suggested that they may be compatible with a hearing aid, encourage your child to try it out. Although they may undergo an adjustment period, pediatric hearing aids are designed to work with a child’s unique needs. For instance, these often include an LED light that indicates battery levels, as a child may often forget about this on their own.
Alternatively, if your child is old enough, they can try other options, such as hearing glasses. As described on the Nuance Audio website, these glasses are specially designed to provide subtle hearing assistance along with vision correction. Unlike traditional hearing aids that are mostly visible, these specs have an air-conduction hearing aid embedded into the frame’s arms. Using an app, this can be calibrated to suit personal preferences and conditions so your child can adjust them to hone in on specific sounds. Since they’re subtle, they may help your child feel more confident, given that Forbes reveals that over 60% of deaf respondents said they’d prefer to wear hearing aids that were “invisible.”
Talk to their teacher about using tech aids
Most teachers are pros at projecting their voices across a large group of kids. However, this isn’t always enough for hearing-impaired students. If they lack directional perception, any sounds they hear can just be confusing. As such, try asking your child’s teacher if their school offers hearing-targeted tech aids. In particular, you could request that the teacher use an FM system. Simply put, FM systems are like microphones that a teacher wears that then transmits their voice directly into a hearing apparatus that the student uses. This can be something like a hearing aid, cochlear implant, or even headphones.
Most schools offer FM systems, as they’re part of Individual Educational Programs (IEPs)and 504 plans. These plans legally require schools to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities. Since the FM system helps students hear their lessons more clearly while also filtering away background noise, it can help them focus and perform better. It’s important to note, though, that these are not replacements for hearing aids, so it’s still best for you to empower your child with a personal device that can consistently help them.
Look into live captioning for online learning
Finally, it’s important to ensure that digital learning mediums are similarly accessible. Whether your child attends physical or online school, they’ll definitely be exposed to some form of digital content, given that most teachers use videos and streaming to teach certain lessons. Since the audio quality of these is not always the best, a child who is hard of hearing may feel frustrated and end up feeling disengaged. To prevent this, look into closed captions. As mentioned in our previous article on how older students can advocate for themselves in college, captions on videos can ensure students don’t miss out on what’s being said in their educational material. Apart from this, if your child’s school makes use of streaming platforms, ask if they can request live captioning services. Case in point, Zoom offers live captioning on all accounts. Using AI, every call can be captioned so long as the speakers are using English. This may be a useful feature so that your child doesn’t have to wait for captions to be manually added in at a later time.
