Auditory sensitivity (acuity of hearing) is determined by the magnitude of the threshold of audibility. The rumor is normal if we hear a whispering speech at a distance of 6 meters, the spoken one at a distance of 6 meters. Recently, in the country for obscure reasons, hearing loss (deafness) among different age groups has been observed. According to statistics, more than 6% of the population suffers from hearing disorders of varying degrees. Untimely detection of such violations, belated treatment to the doctor often leads to a partial or even complete loss of hearing. So, hearing impairment in children and methods of their correction is a topic of conversation for today.
If we talk about an adult person, deafness is a limited ability to work up to, and sometimes a complete disability, difficulties with communicating with people. Even more serious are the consequences of hearing loss for young children. They only have to learn to speak correctly, to imitate what they hear from adults. That is why the presence of a good hearing is one of the mandatory conditions for a child's normal psycho-speech development. A hearing-impaired child often lags behind his peers in terms of mental development, he experiences difficulties with schooling, he is inevitably persecuted by difficulties with communication, with a choice of profession.
What causes hearing loss?
Doctors distinguish between different types of hearing impairment in children: deafness is congenital and acquired. Causes leading to acquired hearing loss, quite a lot, and very different:
• foreign bodies of the external auditory canal and sulfur plugs;
• Diseases of the nasal cavity and nasopharynx (adenoids, acute and chronic rhinitis, acute and chronic sinusitis, pollinosis, curvature of the septum of the nose);
• inflammatory and non-inflammatory diseases of the membrane and auditory tube;
• traumas of the external auditory canal and tympanum;
• Some infectious diseases that result in hearing loss;
• allergic diseases and conditions;
• obscheomaticheskie diseases (diabetes, kidney, blood, etc.), against which can change the hearing;
• use of certain antibiotics (neomycin, kanamycin, streptomycin, monomycin, etc.), as well as some diuretics;
• hereditary pathology;
• Impact of industrial, household and transport noise, vibration;
• vascular disorders;
• intoxication (carbon monoxide, mercury, lead, etc.);
• long use of ear microphones;
• a number of age-related atrophic changes in the inner ear and in the central parts of the hearing aid, etc.
How to recognize hearing loss?
The wide prevalence of diseases accompanied by hearing impairments requires timely diagnosis and the availability of reliable research methods. Today the recognition of hearing loss is carried out:
• by the method of tonal audiometry - when the thresholds of audibility are measured at different frequencies;
• using speech audiometry - determining the percentage of legible speech;
• with the aid of a tuning fork - this ancient method has not lost its importance even in our days.
Methods of correction of hearing impairment in children
Treatment of deafness is still very difficult today. As for modern auditory-improving operations, they are effective only with the deafness resulting from otosclerosis, an azithric otitis media, chronic purulent otitis media in children with hearing impairment, first identified. As for the treatment of neuro-sensory hearing loss, medicine has not made serious steps in recent years, and the medical treatment of neuritis of the auditory nerves remains ineffective.
To the doctor as soon as possible!
Science has proved and practice has confirmed that hearing impairment in children must be diagnosed in the first months of life in order to conduct rehabilitation and recovery activities in the most sensitive periods of hearing and speech development. One of the most reliable methods today is hearing correction with the help of a hearing aid.
Several decades ago, when the quality of the first hearing aids left much to be desired, the patients thought that they were harmful. Indeed, those devices greatly distorted the sound, made noise, they could not be adjusted according to the individual characteristics of the person. However, since then science has taken a step forward. Nowadays, the hearing aid is the most sophisticated microelectronic device of the highest quality, which successfully compensates for almost any degree of hearing loss. With all the variety of models, it is possible to perform the procedure of the initial choice of the apparatus with sufficient accuracy. Due to the adjustment of its amplitude-frequency characteristics, an optimum level of amplification and intelligibility of sound is provided.
A modern hearing aid consists of a microphone that senses and converts surrounding sounds into electrical signals, an electronic amplifier, a volume and tone control, a power source (battery or cell) and a telephone that converts amplified electrical signals into acoustic signals.
Correctly selected hearing aids are able to contribute to the development of hearing debris. He seems to be training auditory analyzers, including their central departments in the cerebral cortex, and only brings benefit to the child.
How to choose a hearing aid for a child?
The earlier a hearing impaired child has the opportunity to use a hearing aid, the better. Immediately after the doctor has detected a hearing impairment, parents should immediately contact a hearing therapist and get a consultation in the hearing anesthesia room. It is impossible to postpone this business for a long time under the pretext that the child is still small, you need to give it a little to grow.
The obligatory stage of speech development in a baby with normal hearing is a period of her passive perception, when the child can only listen but not speak. The similar period lasts 18 months from the moment of a birth and doctors name it "age of hearing". If a child's hearing is depressed, he will not be able to distinguish and remember individual segments of speech elements and eventually completely stop responding to it. In this case, a complete disappearance of unused hearing debris can occur. To prevent this, you need to increase the volume of speech with the help of a hearing aid to give the child the opportunity to perceive it normally.
However, not all hearing impaired children are shown hearing aids. You can not, for example, use them for some psychoneurological diseases (for example, with epilepsy or convulsive syndromes), if there are diseases of the hearing organs and pronounced violations of the vestibular function, as well as in the presence of inflammatory processes in the ear, etc. This question is decided only by the doctor.
The hearing aid is selected individually for each hearing impaired child, taking into account its characteristics and audiometric survey data. The main thing is that the device helps the child to realize the speech perception as much as possible in full and most legible.
Hear the sound of the world
In case of hearing disorders in children, the methods of their correction may be different. Experts advise hearing aid for children with the help of two devices - the so-called binaural prosthetics. It makes it easier to determine the direction of the sound, which is extremely important - the child needs to know where the transport can come from, where the person calling it is, etc.
The possibility of a qualitative analysis of incoming information is only if there are two equal "receivers". Based on the results of numerous studies, it was found that, thanks to binaural prosthetics, children better distinguish surrounding sounds and, what is very important, human speech.
A child needs a so-called individual earmold (IVF), because standard, used by adults, it does not fit. IPM can completely replicate the contour of the child's ear canal, which provides a sealed, comfortable and reliable fixation in the ear. Modern technologies make it possible to make a soft and solid insert of various special materials. And in the absence of IPM, there may be a decrease to a minimum of the effect of hearing aids, even if the hearing aid is of the highest quality.
Parents should understand and realize that the hearing aid is designed to be a constant companion of a child with a deaf ear. The device should be worn immediately, as it wakes up in the morning, not removed during the day and only before going to bed to part with it. Only in this way will the child have the opportunity to get used to the apparatus, to learn how to handle it properly. In this case, the device will become a true helper of a growing person.