How to Support a Child With Hearing Loss

How to Improve Communication at Home

• Help your child use their hearing aids and/or cochlear implants as much as possible. Turn on hearing amplification throughout the day during all activities. Keeping hearing devices turned on and in working order gives your child access to communication, language, and learning opportunities.
• Make your home "listening-friendly." Reduce extra noise by adding carpets and curtains. Use noisy appliances when your child is not home or is sleeping. Arrange furniture to support face-to-face communication.
• Make sure you are in the same room before you start talking. This offers a child the best chance to hear your voice while also seeing visual cues such as facial expressions and body language.
• Speak one at a time (as much as possible) in groups. This will make it easier to follow conversations and help teach the social skill of turn-taking.
• Turn on closed captioning. Even if your child has memorized every line of a movie, practicing reading along can help them keep up with new dialogue when they watch a different movie or show. Most streaming services offer closed captions or subtitles. (It’s important to note that in some cases—such as when a child is getting used to new hearing technology or participating in auditory training—your child may be advised not to use closed captioning).
• Set aside time for regular face-to-face activities. Play a board game or share a meal together. Make sure all screens are down and eyes are up during this time, so everyone can fully capture what is being communicated.

Helping Children With Hearing Loss at School

Classrooms can be noisy places. But there are plenty of ways that you—along with your child’s teachers and support staff—can help them succeed at school.

Work with your child’s teacher, support staff, and educational audiologist to make sure your child’s needs are being met in the classroom. Consider how the classroom setup and acoustics can help your child access the information being learned. Ensure that your child’s teacher and other school staff know how your child’s hearing aid and/or other hearing assistive technology works. Have extra batteries for these systems in the classroom.

Making the Most of Your Child’s Audiologist Appointments

Maintain regular appointments with your child's audiologist. Hearing can change over time. Your audiologist can monitor changes in hearing and how well your child’s hearing technology is working. They can then make any necessary adjustments.

It's helpful to document your child's experiences in a hearing journal, which you can share with your audiologist. Pick a time each week to jot down notes about what has or hasn’t worked. Here are a few examples:

• “Max wore the hearing aids all week with no problem.”
• “Max misunderstood some of the conversation during our family lunch and refused to wear hearing aids for the rest of the day.”
• “Max threw the hearing aid in the bathtub. We used the dry aid kit, and it seems to be working okay.”

To find an audiologist near you, visit ProFind.