How Parents Can Support the Hearing Abilities of Children with Hearing Loss
Fun Hearing Training: Practicing good hearing through play is very beneficial for all children. Daily routines are ideal for incorporating playful listening practice into everyday life. This is complemented by hearing tests and early intervention for children with hearing loss. In this way, parents and educational institutions can help children practice their listening skills every day.
Worldwide, 34 million children are affected by hearing loss that limits their abilities. Hearing is extremely important for children’s language development and for acquiring knowledge. Because children with hearing loss cannot hear the speech of those around them—or cannot hear it clearly enough—they have a harder time imitating speech, which slows their development. What can be done about it? The earlier and more regularly parents have their children’s hearing checked, the sooner hearing loss in children can be detected. And the sooner they can address it with hearing aids and age-appropriate exercises in everyday life.
To develop optimal language skills, children with hearing loss benefit from playful listening training in everyday life, varied listening environments, and a focus on listening. This can be ideally implemented through daily routines. Through this “incidental” training, parents, caregivers, or teachers can playfully develop the listening, speech, and communication skills of children with hearing loss.
Hearing Aid Routines
For good hearing and effective hearing training, it is crucial that children with hearing loss wear their hearing aids or cochlear implants every day. It is important that the devices fit well and comfortably, because only then will hearing and playful hearing training be enjoyable as part of everyday life. Using the so-called Ling test, parents can check every day to make sure the hearing systems are working properly. To do this, they say the six “Ling sounds,” which cover all phonemes—the smallest units of speech that distinguish meaning, such as “a” and “o” in “Rasen” and “Rosen.” The children should then respond, for example, by clapping their hands or by repeating the sounds. This can become a fun daily morning hearing exercise.
How can parents help their children practice their hearing in everyday life?
To help children with hearing loss train their hearing as effectively as possible, they should be exposed to speech more often. For parents, caregivers, and teachers, this means incorporating playful listening exercises into daily life through active conversation. For example, by frequently asking these children what they’re doing, thinking, or feeling at the moment—or by talking about your own actions or thoughts. It also helps to describe details: What does the food taste like? How do the clothes feel? What does the barking dog sound like? And how many plates are on the table? With younger children, it’s a good idea to describe actions and activities—such as changing diapers or preparing food—in detail. You can also repeatedly draw the attention of children with hearing impairments to everyday sounds.
Listening to music or audiobooks, singing, or reading books helps children practice their listening skills in a playful way as part of their daily routine. Songs and nursery rhymes help develop attention and also teach even complex words or sentence structures in a playful way.
A journal can also be helpful for auditory training, where children and parents can record experiences together through writing or drawings and discuss them. Multilingual families should expose children to both their native language and the local or second language in everyday life. After all, hearing loss and a hearing aid do not stand in the way of multilingualism.
How can parents of children with hearing loss help them practice listening?
Children with hearing loss can also train their hearing through active listening. Everyday routines are particularly well-suited for listening practice. Parents can give their children instructions throughout the day, initially without using gestures to support them. Gestures are only introduced when the child is unsure. So, the instruction “Please put on your shoes” or “Please set the table with four small plates” comes before walking together to the shoe closet or into the kitchen. The length and complexity of the instructions can be gradually increased to playfully challenge the children’s hearing more and more, and to clarify sequences verbally using phrases such as “first,” “then,” and “last.”
Learning with Hearing Loss: Which Educational Setting Is Right?
Hearing loss in children is not a criterion for exclusion from admission to a public or private mainstream preschool. Children with hearing loss are often assigned educators with special additional training. However, parents should consider whether, depending on the severity of the hearing loss, it might make more sense for their child to attend a preschool that offers specialized educational support.
Just as with preschool, parents must also decide which type of school to choose for their children with hearing loss when they start school. There are many options available, ranging from mainstream classes with special additional support to inclusive classes and classes exclusively for children with hearing loss. If the conditions are right, nothing stands in the way of a successful school experience.
It is important not to treat children with hearing loss any differently than children with normal hearing. As many examples show, children with hearing loss are just as capable as children without hearing loss and can make the most of their individual talents. Through consistent and routine training, parents and educational institutions help children with hearing loss find their way to hearing—and thus to a self-determined life.
Do you suspect that your child has hearing problems? A hearing test and further evaluations can provide clarity. Use our ENT doctor finder to find a suitable practice right in your area.
