58 what can your child hear?
Ways to check young children’s hearing
Game: What’s that animal?
Make one child the speaker and have him stand 4 meters (12 feet) from
a line of younger children. Behind each young child stands an older
child with a pencil and paper.
speaker
First, the speaker uses a very
loud voice to say the name of a
cat common animal.
The young children whisper the
name they heard to their older
partners. The older children write
that down on a piece of paper.
Then the speaker names other animals, each one more quietly,
until he is whispering. The older children write down every
name that the young children tell them.
After the speaker has named about 10 animals, and the younger
children’s words have been written down, compare the lists. Any child
who has not heard as many words as the others, or has not heard them
correctly, may have a hearing problem.
Tests that can be done at a health center
A clinic or health center may also be able to test your
child’s hearing. This kind of testing can be useful if you
think your child has difficulty hearing but you cannot
tell what kinds of sounds he can hear, if any.
Unfortunately, a clinic that can test hearing may be
very far away or be very expensive. But professional
testing will be necessary if your child is going to use a hearing aid.
If you have already checked your child’s hearing yourself in a familiar
place, he may feel less afraid when he is tested by a strange person in
a strange place. He may be more cooperative and he may understand
more about what he is supposed to do.
Information from the hearing test is used to set a hearing aid to match
the child’s hearing. For more information about hearing aids see pages
217 to 224.
What to do with this information
If your child can hear some sounds, you can help her learn to use her
hearing better. See the next chapter on developing listening skills. After
working on your child’s listening skills for about 6 months, check her
hearing again to see if you get the same results.
Helping Children Who Are Deaf (2004)