Your Child’s Hearing and its Impact on Speech Development

The incidence of noiseinduced hearing loss experienced by children has grown drastically over the past several years due to the increased use of headphones and ear buds.

Children are now being diagnosed with hearing loss at a very young age because they are listening to music, movies, and electronic games at high volume levels. Dr. Megan Bolda, a clinical audiologist at Catalyst Medical Center, said this is particularly worrisome in very young children. “Even a slight hearing loss above 15 decibels affects a wide range of consonant sounds (z, v, p, h, k, f, s, th),” she said. “Young children still learning the sounds of language may not be able to hear these sounds, which may impact their speech production.”

School-aged children with a high frequency hearing loss that goes undiagnosed may have difficulty hearing the classroom teacher, and this may mean missing parts of instruction. Background noise in a typical classroom only exacerbates the effects of the loss, giving the child a disadvantage that may affect his or her ability to follow instruction and comprehend new information. Dr. Bolda compared this to reading a paragraph without consonants. The paragraph no longer has any meaning. Behavioral issues may show up in children because of their frustration.

Dr. Bolda reports that the high school population appears to have the highest incidence of hearing loss due to the loud levels of music they are listening to on their headsets. This too may affect how they comprehend presented materials.

Most importantly, parents and their children need to know that the body cannot repair a hearing loss — the damage is permanent — so prevention is key. Dr. Bolda recommends purchasing protective ear buds that will regulate and limit the sound pressure transferring to the ear.

Beyond Boundaries Therapy Services is available to discuss your concerns in the areas of hearing, speech production, and/ or language. The staff offers free screenings with a licensed speech-language pathologist and, if necessary, they will recommend a speech/language evaluation or referral to an Audiologist. For more information, contact Beyond Boundaries Therapy Services at 701-356-0062, 701-3565410, or at www.beyondboundaries. us.

This article was written in collaboration with Kitsy Radermacher, lead speech-language pathologist at Beyond Boundaries Therapy Services and Megan Bolda, clinical audiologist with Catalyst Medical Center.