Child diagnosed with mild bilateral hearing loss - any advice?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We just found out that our 7 year old has mild-moderate bilateral hearing loss (mostly mild but moderate for 1 or 2 sounds). We are at a total loss as to what to do. Has anyone been through this before who can offer us some advice? Are hearing aids helpful for mild hearing loss? We have an appointment with our ped and another ENT (we started off at georgetown audiology and they referred us to an ENT at georgetown to help us determine what might be causing his hearing loss). Thank you so much for sharing anything - at this point, all information is very helpful!

[Anonymous]

Are they sending you to the ENT to see if you need tubes or has that been ruled out?

[Anonymous]

I was going to ask about tubes too- did they say if it was structural or audio nerve related?

Our big issue came with hearing loss and learning to read.

[Anonymous]

they're sending us to the ENT at georgetown medstar to help determine what might be causing it (if its structural or genetic or something else - i'm not really sure!). He has learned to read well but gets overwhelmed when there is a lot of loud background noise and for a while has deteriorated towards the end of the day, I think because his brain has had to work "extra hard" to hear and learn.

[Anonymous]

ps - i should also say that we found out because he failed his hearing test at the pediatrician 2 years in a row (the first time they told us it could be his age and they would retest again in a year, but after failing a second time, they referred us to audiology).

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I would be extremely concerned about a practice which dismissed a failed hearing test with nothing more than "we'll test next year". I would not want to continue working with a practice who essentially let a kid with hearing loss languish for an entire year without help.

IME, hearing difficulty at a young age has a large impact on language development. My DC had a lot of difficulty with hearing from birth to 6 years due to constant ear infections. IMO, our Medstar Georgetown surgeon failed to recognize that DC's adenoids were too large to allow sinus drainage resulting in 2 ear surgeries in under 6 months. (This despite being advised of family history of such.)

DC probably did not hear well for a substantial portion of his 0-3 years. In retrospect, I wish that someone had advised us that he should probably be getting speech therapy and be monitored much more closely in speech and language development during that time. We could have avoided a lot problems that developed in preschool and ES in terms of how language impacts academics -- spelling, reading, etc.

I also wish we had looked more closely at the River School. I thought at the time since he didn't have a cochlear implant, he would not qualify as one of the hearing impaired children in the classroom, but that kind of language-rich environment built to be inclusive toward hearing impaired kids would have been very good for him.

FWIW, your description of having difficulty hearing against background noise is something my DC experiences also. If your DC is in public school, please ask public school to evaluate for an IEP (or if not 504 plan). Every public school system has one or more county-wide specialists in hearing impairment. There is a simple system that can be used in the classroom - the teacher wears a mic and the student wears an earpiece - to boost the teacher's voice so the student doesn't have to strain so hard to hear. It is cognitively exhausting to work so hard to hear and leaves little energy or attention to learn other things in the classroom.

At age 7, I would also seek out a comprehensive baseline neuropsychological to make sure that hearing loss isn't impacting other things like attention, spelling, reading, math, etc. Even though you say he has learned to read, you really need a professional to assess whether he is reading at a level commensurate with his IQ and whether speed, fluency, decoding and comprehension are all at grade level. Sometimes bright kids can compensate in reading even though they have big holes in one area of reading that are problematic. These compensation strategies usually fall apart as they age and reading becomes more difficult.

There are also accommodations that could be considered -- times in the classroom when he could put on noise blocking headphones during group work, having preferred seating, etc.

[Anonymous]

You’ll find out soon enough but both my son (multiple times as a child), and I (multiple times as a child and again as an adult) needed tubes to address hearing issues.

Fingers crossed yours is that easy to address.

[Anonymous]

Here to say that I didn't like the ENT practice at Georgetown either. Much preferred Children's where child had tonsils and adnoids removed. The ENT there also followed child for hearing concerns (testing below normal).

[Anonymous]

Op, my child is deaf with bilateral cochlear implants, now in early ES.

Go ahead and have the appointment with the Georgetown ENT but their pediatric audiology and ENTs are not as experienced as those at Children’s. We initially went to Georgetown, and then we were referred to Children’s because they didn’t have an audiologist who dealt with kids like mine.

Children’s has been much, much better in terms of the expertise of their audiologist, speech pathologists, and ENTs. It’s a pain to drive there from where we live (Bethesda) but worth it for my child to get the best care. It can be a bit of a wait to get appointments, so do what you need to do at Georgetown, but get the call rolling to get those appointments at children’s.

I also want to say, it will be ok, and (if you are feeling overwhelmed) it will all feel fine once you get your bearings and learn about hearing aids, how to help your child, etc.

My child is thriving. We opted out of public schools and didn’t think the River school was the right fit, either, and my child is doing well at another independent school. You didn’t say how your child is doing with language, reading, etc, but mine had an initial delay but is now doing well - lots of therapy along the way, of course, but now can advocate for what they need to do well in school.

Wishing you the best, and also to your child.

[Anonymous]

Is it a conductive, sensorineural or mixed hearing loss? Makes a huge difference which one.

I have a mild hearing loss that developed over the past 3-4 years. Hearing aids do make a big difference and my family can tell when I am not wearing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:they're sending us to the ENT at georgetown medstar to help determine what might be causing it (if its structural or genetic or something else - i'm not really sure!). He has learned to read well but gets overwhelmed when there is a lot of loud background noise and for a while has deteriorated towards the end of the day, I think because his brain has had to work "extra hard" to hear and learn.

OP, I'm an adult who has hearing loss that happened in adulthood, and yes, he is probably exhausted by the end of the day because it IS hard work to hear and learn when you can't hear well. I experience that myself. Does he have front of room seating? This might help while you guys wait for the appointments.

The hearing aids they have now are so advanced and could likely help him a lot, they can reduce backround noise.

I'm not local, but I would take the advice of the PP with the dc with cochlear implants and make the appointments where they recommend. I'm shocked that your ped didn't refer him to the ENT after they failed the first hearing test.

[Anonymous]

Hearing aids are excellent! You should definitely get them for your child. Starkey Genesis, or a similar Oticon, with a professional audiologist who will adjust and see you and your child as needed.
They have AI technology now. You would be a fool not to give your child a chance to hear, given how many options there are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
We just found out that our 7 year old has mild-moderate bilateral hearing loss (mostly mild but moderate for 1 or 2 sounds). We are at a total loss as to what to do. Has anyone been through this before who can offer us some advice? Are hearing aids helpful for mild hearing loss? We have an appointment with our ped and another ENT (we started off at georgetown audiology and they referred us to an ENT at georgetown to help us determine what might be causing his hearing loss). Thank you so much for sharing anything - at this point, all information is very helpful!

Those are the right things to do. Maybe speech therapy.

[Anonymous]

I have a child with hearing loss, diagnosed a little younger than your child. I just wanted to say I know it’s really jarring and it was a huge shock for us. Be patient with yourself!!

I agree with trying to get accommodations while you figure out the hearing aids. Seating near the front and FACING FORWARD. My kid was apparently doing a lot of lip reading.

Hearing aids are helpful but they are a big transition. Get in with an Audiologist ASAP and buy the best ones you can afford. During this period where kids are still learning phonics and stuff it’s really crucial.

I would also start the process of educating yourself about hearing loss. There are different kinds and depending on what frequencies the loss is at it can mean they are struggling with slightly different sounds. It’s a marathon not a sprint but unfortunately our experience has not be amazing with any ENTs including the very highly recommended one at Children’s who seemed to have a manic episode during our appointment. I really hope it was just a bad day. But the truth is that it will be helpful if you know more and can ask specific questions. The audiologist is going to be your main contact and the person you spend the most time with but their experience is limited to hearing tests and technology and they are obviously not MDs.

I joined a group on Facebook for parents of kids who wear hearing aids and it’s sort of helpful but also just a lot because everyone has such different experiences and different challenges.

Feel free to post here any time and I will answer if I can. We are a Phonak family and it’s served us well but I hear good things about Oticon too.