How to detect and treat hearing loss in a child

Hearing loss is an all too common ailment. Do not be misled: Hearing loss can affect children too. There are easy ways to detect hearing loss in a child:

• The child starts sitting closer to the TV or turns up the volume

• Schoolwork might suffer

• Teachers may comment that your child is not as responsive in the classroom

• Speech can become affected over time without immediate detection

• Lack of responses to sounds

Because hearing plays such an important role in the development of a child, most doctors recommend that newborns be tested for hearing issues by the age of three months. This testing is required by law in many states. Screening is usually done in three steps:

• First, the child is tested for echoes produced by healthy ears in response to soft clicks made by a handheld device.
• Second, a test that measures electrical signals from the brain in response to sounds.
• If hearing loss is still detected, the child may be fitted with hearing aids and may be placed in an educational setting responsive to children with hearing deficits.

Causes of hearing loss in infants and younger children:

• Genetic defects are the most common causes

• Ear infections are the most common causes of hearing issues in older children

• Severe accumulation of earwax

• Cholesteatoma

Causes of hearing loss in older children:

• Head trauma

• Loud noise (including loud music)

• Use of medical substances such as aminoglycoside antibiotics (such as gentamicin) or thiazide diuretics, certain viral infections (i.e. mumps), tumors or traumas that damage the auditory nerve .

• Trauma from pencils or other foreign objects that get stuck deep in the ear, and rarely, autoimmune disease Some causes of hearing loss can be treated so that a child can regain decent hearing. Ear infections can be treated with antibiotics or surgery. Earwax can be manually removed or dissolved with eardrops. Cholesteatomas can be surgically removed.

Most often, however, the cause of hearing loss in a child cannot be reversed. Treatment involves use of a hearing aid to compensate for the deficit as much as possible. Cochlear implants (devices placed in the inner ear to stimulate the auditory nerve with an electrical current in response to sounds) are used for children with severe hearing deficits.