Hearing Loss in Children: Causes, Symptoms and Tests

A lot of children are facing hearing loss nowadays. There are a number of causes to it. Its symptoms are usually first noted by parents. Whether the child really has any hearing problem can be examined by conducting a paediatric hearing test.

Hearing loss is increasing among children in Australia. There are various reasons why children are facing this problem in early age. One of the main reasons is the middle ear infection, which happens quite often in children because of the Eustachian tubes that are not developed fully. As a result, a fluid builds up behind the eardrum and gets infected. This fluid affects hearing when it stays there, at least for a temporary period. In long-lasting and sever cases, otitis media may lead to a permanent hearing loss.

Some children are even born with hearing problems. Most of these children who are born with this problem have someone or the other in their family who has hearing problems. Others face this problem because of some pregnancy issues or prenatal care. If the pregnant woman develops conditions like toxemia or diabetes, the child may have problems as well. Sometimes, a premature delivery also increases the chance of a child to have problems with hearing.

Certain conditions like measles, encephalitis, meningitis, flu and chickenpox can cause hearing problems in children as well. Very loud noises, head injury and some medications are also included in the list of hearing loss causes in children.

There are many symptoms of hearing loss in children. Most of the time, parents are the first one to notice such problems in their child. Some common signs of hearing problem include often asking for radio or TV to be louder, not responding to voices, not reacting to loud noises, not understanding simple things and making simple sounds, which taper off. Whenever these kinds of symptoms are noticed, the first thing that the parents should do is consult with the child’s doctor and look for an audiologist in the area.

The audiologist will conduct a paediatric hearing test and examine whether the child really has any hearing problem and if so to what extent. While conducting the test, the doctor uses an instrument known as otoscope for viewing the inside part of the baby’s ear canal. This enables the doctor to view the eardrum and find the problems, which might have caused the hearing loss. Usually two common tests are used for screening a newborn infant for hearing loss-the auditory brain stem response and otoacoustic emissions test. The older babies and children are taught to respond to the sounds through a play. These tests popular as play audiometry and visual response audiometry are able to determine a child’s hearing range in a much better way.