Hearing Loss in School Aged Children

School-aged children with hearing loss can often face multiple social and academic challenges. Parents can learn appropriate ways to help their child by developing strategies to help them teach communicate with their child more effectively while helping their child boost their self-esteem by obtaining hearing aids.

Hearing loss need not stop your child from having a normal school life. Around 75% of hearing-impaired children are able to attend public schools successfully alongside other children with regular hearing. It can be helpful to learn ways in which hearing loss impacts children in the school setting to help develop creative solutions for the same.

Around 20% of all school-aged children in kindergarten are not equipped with social skills required for success at school, despite their hearing abilities. However, children with hearing disabilities may face additional challenges due to their gaps in communication input, social cues, and language development. Talk to your child’s teacher if you feel that your child may have additional hearing requirements to make their classroom experience a pleasant one. You can collaborate with teachers and other parents of school-aged children to develop techniques that can help your child feel more involved and active in their school experience.

Prepare your hearing-impaired child when it comes to transition from the home environment to the school environment. Educate them about the hearing challenges they might face and be positive and creative in providing coping mechanisms to deal with their challenges in hearing. The best way to do this is to seek the help of an audiologist to help assess the level of your child’s hearing disabilities and see if they can benefit from the use of hearing aids. Using hearing devices, your child can begin their school life well-equipped to deal with the various social and academic pressures that come along with being in school.

Assessing your child’s hearing abilities and rectifying their hearing loss is the first step towards success in school. The next step requires parents to come up with strategies to help your child use their hearing aids effectively. Work with your audiologist to help them adjust their hearing aid settings and learn ways to take care of their hearing aids properly. Encourage them to wear their hearing aids for longer periods of time each day so that they can gradually become accustomed to having them on.

You can utilize the help of several highly qualified professionals to help ensure your child’s future despite their hearing impairment. Work in collaboration with school teachers, other parents, speech therapists, classroom interpreters, occupational therapists and educational audiologists to help create a supportive network for your child. Hearing loss need not prevent your child from reaching the best of their ability. Take a proactive and optimistic approach to help develop several effective methods of dealing with hearing impairment so that your child can remember their school days as the most memorable moments of their life.