Pediatric Hearing Tests
You might be thinking, "My toddler can hear me... and I am not concerned about their hearing."
But your toddler's pediatrician may have recommended a hearing test anyways. Why?
Dr. Michelle Hu (@mama.hu.hears), an expert pediatric audiologist, explains why hearing tests for children are such an important part of supporting your child's development.
I asked her the same question that thousands of parents are asking, "Why does my toddler need a hearing test?"
Dr. Michelle Hu explained,
"A child’s speech and language can be a reflection of what they hear and what is happening with their ears or the auditory pathway to the brain.
A hearing loss inhibits sound and speech from being efficiently delivered to the brain. Then, because of this the areas in the brain that are used for communication may not fully develop.
This makes understanding (receptive language) and talking (expressive language) very difficult."
Now that we understand how hearing impacts a child's language development, it's time to learn more about why this is important for your child. You might still be thinking, "But I am not worried, why is this important."
So next I asked Dr. Michelle Hu to explain what audiologists are looking for and why doctors refer toddlers for a hearing test even when parents aren't concerned and this was her response:
"If there is a concern of any kind (as simple as ear wax blockage to permanent hearing loss) we want to give you resources and recommendations so that it can be taken care of as quickly as possible (if you as parents choose)."
Did you know that ear wax blockage could make it harder for your child to learn to talk? And if this were to be the case, an audiologist could provide professional recommendations to remove the blockage, and therefore make it easier for your child to hear, and easier to learn to speak. (No amount of speech therapy is going to help your child hear better, this really is a prerequisite!).
Dr. Michelle Hu goes on to teach the importance of urgency.
"If children are diagnosed a few years later, a common sign is delayed speech/language skills.
This can often manifest in increased temper tantrums because they don't yet have the language to express their thoughts and needs.
So, this is why a hearing test is recommended prior to speech evaluation. We are HEAR to help you and it takes a TEAM!
Then your child can be on their way to become a great verbal communicator and eventually reader!"
Now that Dr. Michelle Hu has explained the important of hearing tests before speech and language evaluations, I will summarize my main takeaways:
Hearing tests are an important step to take before a speech and language evaluation for children learning to talk
An audiologist will look for anything that could make it harder for your child to hear during their hearing test, from ear wax to a hearing loss
Optimizing your child's hearing will support your child's growing verbal communication skills
You can learn more from Dr. Michelle Hu here:
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