Recognising Hearing Loss
- Hearing problems can lead to problems with social interaction and behavior at school and in the community.
- Children who don't hear well may find it hard to make and keep friends and they may feel left out.
- Some get into trouble for talking at the wrong time and for anti-social behavior.
- Others become shy and they may become upset when they are teased or bullied.
You may or may not notice problems when your son or daughter is at home. Because it is often noisier at school, and children have more trouble listening when it is noisy, they may have more hearing or listening problems at school that they do at home.
However, you may find it is hard to get their attention if they are watching TV and that they like the TV volume to be louder than others do.
Also, they may have trouble keeping friends, argue a lot with their brothers and sisters, and feel sulky and left out.
Children with hearing problems are often very tired when they get home from school. It is very hard work trying to listen when you can't hear properly.
Their efforts to play sport may also be affected, as 'glue ear' can affect coordination and their hearing problems may mean that they can't hear the instructions or directions they need when playing games.
Watch your child for these signs:
- will find it hard to hear when it is noisy
- may be seen as aggressive, over indulged or over sensitive
- may often be in trouble at school or be quiet, shy or anxious
- may have difficulty learning to read and spell
- may have problems playing team sports because they cannot hear other players or the coach.
Video clip about hearing loss
Elaine Cox is an Aboriginal teacher from Broome.
In this video, Elaine remembers what is was like as a child with hearing loss and the effect this had on her family life.
Duration: 2.50 minutes
File size: 3MB
Click on the video camera icon and a new window will open to play the video. Requires Quicktime or Windows Media Player