Babies Can't Wait

Young children with hearing loss require appropriate, quality amplification as soon as possible after a hearing loss is identified. Only with appropriate auditory stimulation can children with residual hearing learn to develop the auditory skills that are the foundation for speech development and lifelong verbal language learning.

Sometimes a child can be fit with hearing aids long before it has been determined how these expensive devices can be purchased. In other instances, it takes time to be sure just how well a child hears and if hearing ability is changing. In this case the first amplification a child is fit with may not be powerful enough if his or her hearing loss increases. These are just two of the reasons why the Children’s Hearing Help Fund, Hearing Aid Loan Bank for Infants and Toddlers was established.

Babies can’t wait! Bringing sound to the ear is also bringing information to the brain. Access to speech and sounds in the environment stimulates brain development and cognition. Even mild and unilateral hearing loss will often cause delays in the development of language, listening, and attending skills, and ultimately in the child’s learning.

Although hearing aids do not restore normal hearing, they provide very substantial benefit in allowing children to access speech and sounds around them, which in turn, encourages brain development and learning.

Research has indicated that children with hearing loss who are communicated with effectively by their parents and caregivers before the age of 6 months can develop language ability that is typical of children without hearing loss by age 3 years. Only with early amplification, can children with residual hearing reach these developmental listening, verbal language, and speech goals.