CHILDREN...A SPECIAL CONCERN
At Professional Hearing Services we have highly-trained clinical audiologists who specialize in pediatric assessment. Their experience working with children brings a level of support that has proven essential in assisting children and parents through the learning curve of a hearing loss disability. We feel certain that you will find our confident professionals are dedicated to making a child's world a little larger.
- Speech Language Development
- Critical Years
- Importance of Early ID
- Possible Signs of Hearing Loss
- Decrease babbling
- No startle reflex
- Not responding to sound
- Ear infection - temporary or permanent hearing loss
Dear Parent, Did you know?
- The 1994 Position Statement given by the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing endorses the goal of universal detection of hearing loss.
- Newborn and infant hearing loss is estimated to occur in 6 per 1,000 births.
- Fifty percent of infants with hearing loss and deafness are normal, full-term babies.
- Infants can be fitted for hearing aids as early as 1 month of age.
- Hearing problems typically are not detected until the child would normally learn speech at 2-3 years of age.
- Detecting hearing problems at birth will help prevent developmental and social problems that occur if not detected until later in childhood.
- Early detection can save thousands of dollars in follow-up care to correct the problems.
- Hearing screening can be performed after birth and takes only a few minutes.
- The screen causes no discomfort to the infant. In fact, the infant should be quietly asleep during the hearing screen.
Your Baby's Hearing Checklist
Birth to 3 Months:
- Quiets or diminishes activity when approached by sound (hears parent’s voice)
- Is startled by loud sounds (startle – blink, body jerk, cessation of sucking, sudden cry, etc.)
Three to Six Months:
- Looks to speaker’s voice
- Turns head to search for source of a voice
- Enjoys rattles, noise-making toys
- Anticipates feeding by familiar sounds (bottles, rattling, spoon in dish, etc.)
Six to Ten Months:
- Reacts to music by cooing
- Responds to own name
- Looks to right person when words "Mommy" and "Daddy" are said
- Shows understanding of common words such as "no", "all-gone", "bye", "nighty-night"
- Babbles (sounds like: da, ba ma)
Ten to Fifteen Months:
- Knows names of favorite toys and can point to them when asked
- Likes rhymes and jingles
- Imitates simple words and sounds
Fifteen to Twenty Months:
- Can follow simple directions ("Go get your shoes, jacket.")
- Recognizes hair, nose, eyes and other parts of body when named
- Asks for wants by naming "blanket", "cookie", or "teddy bear"
- Speaks 10 to 20 words
Twenty to Twenty-four Months:
- Begins combining words such as: "More juice", "Mommy home?" or "Go bye-bye car"
- Refers to self by name
- Enjoys being read to
- Shows interest in sounds of radio, television and stereo
Twenty-four to Three Years of Age:
- At 24 months: speaks about 270 words with a very fast rate of increase in vocabulary each day
- Wants to communicate to express needs and interests and tell experiences
- Is frustrated if adults do not understand
- By age three, vocabulary equals some 1000 words, about 80% of which should be intelligible even to strangers. It is not unusual for some sounds to be mispronounced (such as "th", "r", or "l")
