One of the most important things that you can do for your children is pay close attention to their sensory needs. For some children, that means going to an optician and having their eyes checked and glasses measured up. For other children, that means going to an audiologist to get their hearing checked.
Most babies have their hearing tested at birth in the hospital before they come home. These checks are basic ones to see whether there are any initial difficulties in hearing, but after that? Not many children go for second or even third hearing tests, but if you suspect anything is wrong with your child’s hearing, that’s your signal to start looking into what ethical hearing care looks like. Most children who go for further hearing tests do so because their parents have noticed their reactions or ability to hear isn’t as sharp as they should be. Below, we’ve put together five reasons to go ahead and get your child’s hearing checked:
- Your child is about to start school. One of the most important tools your child could have in their back pocket when they start school is good hearing. It’s important for socialization, for academic development and for confidence, and you want to ensure that your child goes to school with all their senses working well.
- You noticed some critical issues in behaviour. When it comes to their school misbehaviour or home misbehaviour, we don’t always think about hearing being the root issue, but children can often act up out of frustration or embarrassment or if they can’t hear the instructions being given to them. It’s always better to rule out a hearing in the early stages of any behavioural concerns because a middle ear or an in-depth ear issue can be the reason your child’s behaviour looks different to what you expect.
- Ear infections are rife. Did you know that children often get up to four ear infections per year? Certain ear infections produce no pain at all, but the ones that go unnoticed are the problem. The issue with ear infections, also called midloth pathology, is that they can come and go very easily. This means that their hearing is always fluctuating and that can impact how their speech develops.
- Worried about their speech? Speaking of speech, hearing is closely related to the development of language. So if you want to ensure that your child is on the right track when it comes to development of speech and language, then you need to visit a hearing specialist so that you can rule out any issues before you visit a speech pathologist. A speech pathologist will always send you to an audiologist first, so you need to ensure that you’ve done that.
- You don’t need to get a referral. If you do have any concerns when it comes to your child’s hearing, you don’t have to go via their main doctor to go and get that hearing test done. There are plenty of options for affordable pricing for children of all ages so that you can get the hearing checked as soon as you can.
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