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Hearing development in children

From birth until puberty, our organs are constantly developing and growing. Although it is not entirely obvious, this process also occurs with our ears.

Our hearing begins to develop even in the womb, but before it begins to play a significant role in our communication, interaction with others, obtaining knowledge, a certain period of time must pass.

How children hear

weeks, his ears are already beginning to form, and by the 18th week the child is able to hear the sound. The baby can hear sounds outside the womb, but they are half muffled for him. The sounds are not clear due to the fact that the child is surrounded by water. However, he also hears various internal sounds, including the mother's heartbeat, stomach growling, and breathing.

Around the 24th week of pregnancy, the baby begins to react to sounds and voices. The brightest sound for him is the mother's voice and over time the child may well recognize it. Many moms talk to their babies while they're still in their tummy, but many of them don't know that the baby is actually hearing them.

During pregnancy, it is important not to be exposed to excessive noise for long periods of time. Although loud noises and occasional concerts cannot harm a baby, prolonged exposure to excessive noise can cause hearing loss before the baby is born.

How hearing develops

From the moment of birth, hearing continues to develop. There are children who are already born with hearing loss. There are children whose hearing is lost over time, for example, after an illness. The ideal option would be to conduct hearing tests in the first days after birth in order to identify problems at an early stage, if any, and breathe a sigh of relief if they are not. An important point in the development of a child's hearing is the presence of vaccinations, since some diseases can have complications in the form of hearing loss. Watching your child can also help you identify hearing problems before they become serious. If you have any suspicions that your child is hard of hearing, you should immediately pay a visit to the doctor.

Hearing is closely related to the development of the child and his communication with peers and adults. With the help of hearing, children follow the voice, look for the person who is speaking, can calm down from the sounds of the voice, gain knowledge, play games. All this can be seen at the stages of their development.

From birth, the only means by which children can signal their needs to adults is crying. For different needs, they can cry in different ways. They react to loud noises by crying. They recognize their mother's voice and the voices of other family members and soothe or smile to the sound of the voices of the people who care for them.

At around four to six months, babies begin to develop a better understanding of sound. They respond to changes in voice tone, follow the direction of the noise with their eyes, and can also look for the source of the noise. They notice the music, laugh and even babble to imitate speech.

By the first year, babies begin to build vocabulary and improve their understanding of sounds. They try to copy the sounds of the words around them. Many children learn simple words like "mom" or "baba" and recognize their own name. They hear when they are called and turn in the direction of the sounds. They may even communicate by raising their hands, waving, or clapping their hands.

Identifying hearing loss in children

Hearing plays an important role in the overall development of a child. It is needed for communication, learning the language and understanding the world around us. If hearing is difficult or completely reduced, it will be more difficult for a child to learn to speak and communicate their needs.

Children with hearing loss may exhibit behaviors such as:

• Do not respond when called by name.
• Do not turn around to see where the sound is coming from.
• Touching or grasping the ears (this may indicate pain or tinnitus).
• Inattentive to sounds and voices around them.

Children who have learned to speak may have the following signs of hearing loss:

• difficulties at school.
• unusual speech patterns in the voice.
• frequent complaints of earache or loud noise.
• eyes are fixed on the lips of the people they are talking to (lip reading).
• cannot make out words even when repeated and pronounced clearly. often say "what" or "yes".
• sitting close to the TV, turning up the volume or asking for subtitles.
• do not respond to their name.

These hearing problems can be caused by temporary hearing loss due to ear infections, or they can be signs of a more serious problem - acquired hearing loss.

Hearing problems in children

Hearing problems in children come in three main forms:

1. congenital

occurs from birth and is usually identified at an early stage.

Congenital hearing loss can be caused by:

• Genetic conditions such as autosomal recessive hearing loss

This is the most common form of genetic hearing loss. In this case, both parents are carriers of the recessive hearing loss gene and pass it on to their child.

• Autosomal dominant hearing loss is the second most common and occurs when a father with a dominant gene passes it on to his child.
• Genetic syndromes such as Trecker Collins Syndrome, Alport Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Ushers Syndrome and others.
• Premature birth.
• Maternal diseases during pregnancy, such as - rubella, toxoplasmosis, herpes.
• Complications at birth: lack of oxygen or need for blood transfusion.
• Abuse of drugs or alcohol by the mother.
• Use of ototoxic drugs.

2. acquired

occurs after birth. Occurs as a result of injury or illness.

Causes of hearing loss acquired:

• head injury
• Perforation (rupture) of the eardrum
• Serious infections (measles, pig, meningitis, pertime)
• Long -term shums
• Disease
untreated ear infections

3. temporary

most often caused by temporary ear infections and Eustachian tube congestion.

Temporary hearing loss is often caused by ear infections and can be corrected with medication and treatment. However, if left untreated, temporary hearing loss can become chronic.

All forms of hearing loss can adversely affect a child's development and hearing. For this reason, it is important to pay close attention to how your child hears and communicates with others. If you are in doubt, have your child have a hearing screening. If your child is indicated for hearing aids, do not despair - seek advice from our hearing care specialists. These are people who will professionally select hearing aids specifically for your child and set them up correctly.

You can make an appointment by calling: 068/095/063 472-03-03 or using the chat on the website.

Can your child hear?

According to statistics, every year in Russia, out of 1,000 healthy newborns, 1 child is born with total deafness. In children born prematurely, with low body weight, with CNS damage, this figure increases by 20 times. However, today, deafness is not a sentence. The main thing is to notice in time and turn to specialists.

Sometimes, walking down the street, we notice people who are gesticulating, turning towards each other. We pass by without thinking about how these people live in the country of the deaf when the world around you is devoid of all sounds, when you cannot hear the cry of a newborn baby, a declaration of love, words of forgiveness, pleas for help. And how does a little, just born man live in the world without a mother's lullaby, without dad's laughter, without a cat's meow, birds singing? How can he live and develop, deprived of hearing? And, if it seems to you that this trouble will bypass you and your loved ones, then I can upset you, this can happen to anyone. There are risk factors for hearing loss:

Adverse family history:

1. Hearing loss at a young age in at least one of the family members.

Adverse maternal history:

1. Toxicosis of the first half of pregnancy and preeclampsia.

2. Infectious and viral diseases of the mother during pregnancy (rubella, measles, shingles, herpes zoster, cytomegalovirus infection, influenza, mumps, toxoplasmosis and other viral infections).

3. Maternal use of ototoxic drugs during pregnancy.

Unfavorable history of the child's life:

1. Prematurity.

2. Gestational age over 40 weeks.

3. Apgar score at birth 0-3.

4. Birth weight less than 1500 g

5. Neonatal asphyxia

6. Congenital malformations of the maxillofacial skeleton

7. Counted with hearing impairment of the malfunctions of the child

8. Intracranial birth injury

9. Gypoxic-hemic lesion of the central nervous system

10. The hemolytic disease of the newborn.

11. Hyperbilirubinemia (more than 20 µmol/l).

12. Neonatal meningitis.

13. Treatment with ototoxic drugs

The main thing that every mother should know is that a newborn's hearing is checked at birth. home for 3-4 days. This is for ALL kids. The result must be recorded in the statement: it is: "test passed" or "failed". At this point, in more detail for those who "did not pass the test": dear mothers, it's too early to worry, this does not mean that the child does not hear, it means that you must repeat this test in 1 month at the clinic at the place of residence. There are reasons for not passing this test:

• Sulfur masses (birth lubrication) in the external auditory canal

• Myxoid tissue or exudate in the middle ear

• Damage to the external hair cells

• Test must be done in silence (the test must be performed in silence!)

If, for the second time, the child does not pass the audiological test, he must be sent for an in-depth audiological examination to the audiological center: for children of the Sverdlovsk Region - to the Regional Children's Audiological Center of the MKMC "Bonum". There, experienced specialists will determine the degree of hearing loss, tell your further actions.

Some babies need hearing aids and need to wear them at a certain time: up to 6 months. And it’s not true that everyone around will say that it’s too early, that you need to wait, that hearing aids spoil your hearing and you need to wear them only in extreme cases! You need to listen to the DOCTOR! After all, delay with hearing aid in the first year of life entails a lag in speech development. If the child does not hear sounds, he does not understand speech, so he will not start talking or will start talking later, with significant impairment.

Remember that today's hearing aids are not the old ones you saw on your grandparents. Modern hearing aid is:

• Digital audio processing

• Setting accuracy

• Multichannel

• Programmability

• Multiprogramming

• Microphone directivity

• Acoustic management

• Acoustic Feedback Suppression

• Noise Cancellation

But, there is a hearing loss that no even the most powerful hearing aid can help: it's deafness! These are terrible words, they are scary to say to the doctor and scary to hear for mom: your child does not hear. And you understand that the best, most beautiful baby in the world will never become a musician (or a doctor, or an actor). Because he is deaf. Is it possible to convey all the grief and despair that covers parents, grandparents. The main thing is that you are not left alone at this moment. Doctors and teachers of the Regional Children's Audiological Center of the MKMC "Bonum" will help you cope with all the difficulties.

Today, deafness is not a sentence. There is a proven, effective and safe method for the rehabilitation of children with total deafness. This is a cochlear implant.

COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION is a system of measures and technical means aimed at restoring missing physical hearing.

Cochlear Implant Kit consists of two parts: internal and external. Internal (implantable), surgically placed under the scalp and into the cochlea during surgery. The outer part - the speech processor is worn behind the ear or fastened to the baby's clothes.

How does the cochlear implant system work?

1. The microphone picks up sounds around us and transmits them to the speech processor.

2. The speech processor analyzes sounds and encodes them into a sequence of electrical impulses.

3. The transmitter antenna sends these pulses through intact skin to the cochlear implant.

4. The implant transmits electrical impulses to electrodes in the cochlea, where the auditory nerve fibers are stimulated.

5. The auditory nerve receives electrical impulses and sends information to the auditory centers of the brain. The brain recognizes the transmitted signals as sound.

Indications for cochlear implantation