Auditory Development of Children

Normal hearing is essential for the development of speech and language as well as interpersonal and social communication skills during childhood. In addition, 0 to 6 years of early life is the golden period for speech and language development. Thus, hearing impairment during childhood may hinder child’s language acquisition, learning, social skills and emotional behavioral response development.

 

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1-3 months

Hearing Behavioral Responses

Startled by a sudden loud noise such as a hand clap or a door slamming, blink or open his eyes widely to such sounds.

By 1 month of age, infants would pause and listen to those sudden prolonged sounds like the noise of a vacuum cleaner.

4-6 months

Hearing Behavioral Responses

He should quieten or smile to the sound of your voice even when he cannot see you. He may also turn his head or eyes towards you if you come up from behind and speak to him from the side.

7-9 months

Hearing Behavioral Responses

Immediately turns to your voice across the room or to very quiet noises made on each side if she is not too occupied with other things.

Listen attentively to familiar daily sounds and search for very quiet sounds made out of sight. Started babbling.

10-12 months

Hearing Behavioral Responses

Show some response to his/her name and to other familiar words.

May respond when you say ‘no’ and ‘bye bye’ without accompanying gesture.

1 – 2 years old

Hearing Behavioral Responses

Able to understand and follow simple instructions e.g., ‘Give it to mommy’

Listen to simple story and rhymes

3 – 4 years old

Hearing Behavioral Responses

Use appropriate volume when watching TV or listening to music or radio

Look for you when you call from another room

5+ years old

Hearing Behavioral Responses

Able to understand most of what you and teachers say

Like storying telling/reading and able to answer questions related to the story

Symptoms of Children Hearing Loss

Mild hearing impairment may be difficult to detect. However, parents and/or care takers may have some ideas about a child’s hearing by observing his/her behaviors in daily life. The following are some indicators of hearing impairment in children:


(Reference: Student Health Service, Department of Health)

1. Ear Discomfort

  • Earache or ear block
  • Constantly pulling or scratching ear(s)
  • Ear discharge or being smelly
  • Tinnitus (ringing or noise in ear(s) or head)

2. Difficulty in hearing or understanding others in the following situations:

  • Someone speaks softly or not facing the child
  • Far away from sound sources (as in at the back of classroom) or in noisy places

3. Showing following behavior(s) in class:

  • Tends to lean forward, turns head to one side or pay extra attention to the speaker’s face while listening
  • Difficulty locating the sound source
  • Often requests for repetition by saying “Pardon?” or “Say that again”, “Could you repeat’’ during a conversation
  • Poor attention or easily distracted in class
  • Delayed responses to verbal instructions during group activities, or responds only after watching others’ responses
  • Missing ‘s’ at the end of a sentence or word during dictation
  • Poorer performance in subjects relying on listening

4. Speech and language & social skills

  • Confuses words with similar sounds e.g. ‘sin’ and ‘tin’, ‘sick’ and ‘shake’, ‘ship’ and ‘chip’
  • Unclear speech
  • Delayed speech and/or language development
  • Prefers staying alone and is not willing to participate in group activities

Does your child hear normally?

Make an appointment for the Pediatric Hearing Test to understand the hearing of your child, help them to improve their hearing and speaking ability.
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Pediatric Hearing Aids

Oticon is devoted in developing high performance pediatric hearing aids, focusing on good quality, robustness and accessibility making hearing aids to meet the needs of hearing impaired children from infanthood to teenager to facilitate hearing and learning. Most importantly, to empower self-confidence and improving living standard.
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Frequency Modulation (FM) System

Frequency Modulation (FM) system is an effective assistive listening device uses in conjunction with hearing aids or cochlear implants to facilitate better speech and sound reception by overcoming undesirable listening environment in classroom, including high background noise (which could as high as 65 dB), sound attenuation due to lengthen distance and reverberation, through direct transmission of speech to the hearing-impaired student’s hearing device.

FM System composes of two parts:

  1. Microphone and Transmitter (carried by teacher or speaker)
  2. Receiver (attaches to hearing aid or cochlear implant)

Advantages of Using FM System

  1. Enhance Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)
    If the distance between microphone of the transmitter is limited to 6 inches or less from the speaker’s mouth, no matter where in the classroom the hearing-impaired child is sitting, he could hear as if the teacher is speaking next to him.
  2. Extend reception range, good for outdoor use.
  3. Each FM system has its own channel and will not be interfered by another system in the neighboring classroom

Cochlear Implant

A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device from people with severe-to-profound hearing loss whereas hearing aids could not meet his/her amplification needs.

Cochlear implant consists of two components:

  1. External speech processor (hang behind the pinna)
  2. Internal electrode placed in the cochlea
    It works by transforming sounds into electrical signals that directly stimulate the auditory nerve (Cranial Nerve VIII) bypassing damaged hair cells in the cochlear.
    Candidacy of cochlear implant has to be determined by a professional team involving otolaryngologists and audiologists to undergo a series of assessment.