Re: What if it seems like your kid can hear

October 18, 2004

I'm one of those whose child had an ABR and our audiologist " got it " on the

nose - a profound loss.

I will say that as your children get older, testing becomes easier and more

accurate. Hearing testing is pretty tricky - as we all know. At least in our

case, the booth testing got better and more accurate as my boys got used to

being tested in the booth. I'd also say that fitting hearing aids was a breeze

on a 12 year old - he asked so many questions!

A high frequency loss - as probably you know - affects a lot of language

learning. So many speech sounds - /s/ /th/ - are soft and can't be heard by a

child with a high frequency loss. Our boys, even aided (they have a severe and

a profound loss - so sounds like it's greater than your son) can't hear those

sounds. Neither of my boys were diagnosed as newborns so I can't comment on

your other questions. I don't think you're a bad mom - maybe take your son's

aids out at certain times when you know he'd take them out?

Take care!

Barbara

--- You wrote:

I noticed that several people wrote about it seeming like their babies can hear

more than they should be able to. I am wondering if any parents of older kids

can comment on this. I too am having this experience. My 8 month old son,

Will, is supposed to have a mild to moderate loss in one ear and a mild to

severe loss in the other. His high frequencies are where the loss is greater.

However, he seems to hear just about everything. So, sometimes my husband and

I are hesitant or lax about using his hearing aids. I then feel like an awful

mother -- thinking that I am hurting his language development and I will really

regret this later. He probably wears the aids 80% of his waking time. But he

is constantly getting them off and putting them in his mouth (even though he

wears a hat that covers the aids). We have already had to have the aids

repaired multiple times -- which is expensive.

Is everyone else great about getting their infant to wear the aids?

Did anyone else feel that their child could hear pretty well when he/she was an

infant? What happened when your child got older?

I've really enjoyed reading what everyone has written and have learned a lot

from this site.

Oh, one more question. Some of you have written that your child started AV

therapy even younger than 8 months. What do the therapists do with babies so

young? Is this something I need to be doing? How will I know?

--- end of quote ---

*******************************

Barbara Mellert

Manager, Social Science Computing

Kiewit Computing Services

Dartmouth College

13A Silsby Hall; HB 6121

Hanover NH 03755

Telephone: 603/646-2877

URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ssc

October 18, 2004

Although I am not really a parent of an older kid (our son just turned

one) a short response:

had a phase when he pulled his aids out all the time. It later turned out

that both aids were set far too powerful. Once they were turned down

stopped pulling them out so much (now he only does it occasionally, eg when he

is tired). When you say that Will seems to hear so much without aids, maybe the

pulling out happens for the same reason, that they just bother him because they

are too loud?

We started AVT when was 7 or 8 months old. The therapist simply plays

with and talks to the child, as well as a great amount to the parent. We found

it very useful from the beginning. If you want to know whether it is already

right for you, I would speak to a potential therapist and maybe have one or two

test sessions.

Marie

julia.jones@... wrote:

I noticed that several people wrote about it seeming like their babies can hear

more than they should be able to. I am wondering if any parents of older kids

can comment on this. I too am having this experience. My 8 month old son,

Will, is supposed to have a mild to moderate loss in one ear and a mild to

severe loss in the other. His high frequencies are where the loss is greater.

However, he seems to hear just about everything. So, sometimes my husband and I

are hesitant or lax about using his hearing aids. I then feel like an awful

mother -- thinking that I am hurting his language development and I will really

regret this later. He probably wears the aids 80% of his waking time. But he is

constantly getting them off and putting them in his mouth (even though he wears

a hat that covers the aids). We have already had to have the aids repaired

multiple times -- which is expensive.

Is everyone else great about getting their infant to wear the aids?

Did anyone else feel that their child could hear pretty well when he/she was an

infant? What happened when your child got older?

I've really enjoyed reading what everyone has written and have learned a lot

from this site.

Oh, one more question. Some of you have written that your child started AV

therapy even younger than 8 months. What do the therapists do with babies so

young? Is this something I need to be doing? How will I know?

Take care,

October 18, 2004

-

My daughter began wearing hearing aids at 6 months and started AVT the

next day. Like most babies, she played with her aids at pulled them

out. We used the following tricks successfully: clips (we like those

from getsafensound.com but some families like Critter Clips) that attach

the aids to clothing and help keep them snug to the head; pilot caps to

keep their hands away from the aids; pediatric hook to help the aid stay

on the ear (available for some hearing aids, not all); Super Seals (to

protect the aid from when they are chewed) and lots and lots of

patience. If she pulled the aid out, it went back in with no anger or

frustration (though there was lots internally!!).

While Hadley adapted to the aids quickly, we have always gone through

periods where she has not liked them. Our response has always been the

same: they need to be in her ears and so we will put them there. As we

show no anger or frustration to her, it is not a power struggle. We

have always let her be a part of getting them on since she was a baby (I

have pictures of her as an 8 month old trying to put a Super Seal on!),

which helps her feel part of the process.

I wouldn't drive my car if Hadley were not in a car seat. I give her

medicine when she is sick, even if she doesn't want to take it. There

are some absolutes in life, and for our family wearing hearing aids is

one of them. She gets lots and lots of choices and can make plenty of

her own decisions in other areas, but when it comes to her hearing,

we're all in agreement that the aids stay in.

In the early months of AVT, we focused many of our efforts on

introducing her to sounds and pairing objects to speech sounds. It was

also important that she develop a good relationship with her cert AVT.

Most importantly, this was time that our cert AVT could really focus on

the parent guidance aspect of therapy and make sure we were learning

what we needed to. Those early months of therapy were important for

Hadley, but critical for me.

I am always amazed by what Hadley can hear (she has a severe bilateral

loss). In the sound booth, she usually comes in at around 20-25dB

across all frequencies during aided testing, although with some

frequencies it's closer to 15dB. Her hearing loss is pretty invisible

to the average person (especially since she has the speech and language

of a 5 1/2 year old). What has been helpful to me is using a program

called Visual Speech at the audiologist's office. When I speak into a

microphone, the computer can show me Hadley's audiogram (aided or

unaided) and graph where my speech sounds come in. There are lots of

environmental sounds too that can be graphed on. The best part of this

program is that I played around with modulating my voice and using

different pitches and was able to actually see which were the best to

use when speaking to Hadley (aided or unaided).

Good luck,

Kerry

October 18, 2004