ear, nose, and throat disorders
Hearing Loss
Treatment in children
In addition to having any cause treated and Hearing Aids provided, children with hearing loss require support of language development with appropriate therapy. Because children must be able to hear language to learn it spontaneously, most deaf children develop language only with special training. Ideally, this training begins as soon as the hearing loss is identified. An exception would be a deaf child growing up with deaf parents who are fluent sign language users. Deaf infants also need a way to communicate before they learn to speak. For example, a sign language that is tailored to infants can provide a foundation for later development of spoken language if a cochlear implant is not available. However, for children, there is no substitute for access to the sounds of speech (phonemes) to enable a refined and nuanced understanding of speech and language. A Cochlear Implants may be helpful for infants who have profound hearing loss in both ears and who cannot hear sounds with a hearing aid. The sooner the implant can be placed in deaf children, the greater hearing improves. Although cochlear implants help many children with either congenital or acquired deafness hear, they are usually more effective in children who already have developed language. Sometimes the inner ear hardens into bone (ossifies) in children who become deaf after having meningitis. In such cases, cochlear implants should be used early to maximize effectiveness. Children whose acoustic nerves have been destroyed by tumors may be helped by having electrodes implanted in the base of the brain (brain stem) as well. Children with cochlear implants may have a slightly greater risk of meningitis than children without cochlear implants or adults with cochlear implants. Children who are deaf in only one ear should be allowed to use a special system in the classroom, such as an FM auditory trainer. With these systems, the teacher speaks into a microphone that sends signals to a hearing aid in the child’s normal ear. This process improves the child’s greatly impaired ability to hear speech against a noisy background. Also, children who are deaf in only one ear may benefit from a cochlear implant in their deaf ear. 