Why Hearing Is Important In Children

Key Points

  • Because of technology and brain neuroplasticity, everything we used to know and believe to be true about hearing loss has changed
  • The problem with hearing loss is that it keeps sound from reaching the brain; the purpose of hearing aids and cochlear implants is to access, stimulate, and grow auditory neural connections throughout the brain as the foundation for spoken language, reading and academics
  • There is a distinction between hearing and listening
  • Today's child who is "deaf" without using technology may function like a child with a mild to moderate hearing loss when provided with hearing aids or a cochlear implant because critical neural connections have been developed through meaningful auditory stimulation
  • Because about 95% of children with hearing loss are born to hearing and speaking families, listening and talking likely will be desired outcomes for a vast majority of families we serve; those outcomes require vigilant, consistent and caring audiological management
  • 12,000 babies with hearing loss are identified each year
  • Hearing loss is the most common birth defect
  • If not adequately diagnosed, it can negatively affect the speech, language, academic, emotional and psycho-social development of young children
  • Newborn hearing screening is identifying and treating hearing loss in neonates
  • EHDI - Early Hearing Detection and Intervention
  • The purpose of hearing aids and cochlear implants grow auditory neural connections throughout the brain as the foundation for spoken language, reading and academics
  • Sensory stimulation of the auditory centers of the brain is critical and influences the actual organization of the auditory brain pathways
  • If hearing loss filters some or all speech sounds from reaching auditory centers of the brain, then the brain will be organized differently
  • Phonemic awareness, which is the explicit awareness of the speech sound structure of language units, forms the basis for the development of literacy skills
  • Acoustic stimulation must occur early and often
  • Children receiving implants very early (around 1 year of age) may benefit more from the relatively greater plasticity of the auditory pathways than will children who are implanted later in the developmentally sensitive period
    • Cochlear implants: early implantation (~ 1 year age) is better developmentally
  • Neuroplasticity is greatest during the first three and a half years of life
  • In the absence of sound, the brain reorganizes itself to receive input from other senses, primarily vision; this process, called cross-modal reorganization, reduces auditory neural capacity
  • Words used today to express hearing loss may need to be reconsidered
  • The degreee of hearing loss ought not determine their functional outcome; performance with technology is what will determine functional outcome
  • Hearing is acoustic access to the brain
  • Listening is focusing and attending to the acoustic events that are available
  • Hearing muyst be made available by audiologists before listening can be taught by parents
  • Hearin loss of any type or degree that occurs in infancy or childhood can interfere with the development of a childs spoken language, reading and writing skills and academic performance
  • Hearing loss can be described as an invisible acoustic filter that distorts, smears, or eliminates incoming sounds, especially sounds from a distance
  • Hearing loss itself is invisible
  • As human beings we are neurologically "wired" to develop spoken language (speech) and reading skills through the central auditory system. Most people think that reading is a visual skill, but recent research on brain mapping shows that primary reading centers of the brain are located in the auditory cortex - in the auditory portions of the brain
    • Children exhibit difficulty reading even though their vision is fine
  • The earlier and more efficiently a pediatric audiologist can enable a child's access to meaningful sound, the better
  • Without clear detection of the entire speech spectrum, higher levels of auditory processing are not possible and a baby or child's listening spoken language, and literacy outcomes will be compromised.