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Practical hints and tips about Children's Hearing Loss
There
are a whole range of services and support open to your child and
your family. These services are designed to help children with
hearing impairment make optimum use of their hearing. Your doctor
or audiologist will help you make decisions about the most appropriate
strategies for your child's individual needs.
However, below are a few simple tips for you and the people around
your child.
Be
seen and heard
When
you (or other people) are speaking, ensure that your child can
see your face clearly. Everybody uses facial expression to compliment
communication and the movement of our lips as we speak also offers
clues. Even without formal training in lip reading. Therefore,
those with hearing loss can especially benefit from a clear view
of the person who is speaking. Try not to hide your mouth or turn
away while speaking as this will prevent your child benefiting
from this useful information.
Get
involved
The
professionals you meet are there to help you. Together you form
a team whose focus is to discover what is best for your child.
Opinions may differ; there are limits to anyone's ability to provide
all the answers. Get involved with the process and weigh all the
advice and information you receive to come to the best decisions
for yourself, your family and your child.
Share
in success
Your
child and your family can really benefit from the experiences
of other families in a similar situation. This could be information
about a new amplification technology or just a little thing that
worked for them. If you come across someone with a child who is
doing things you would like your child to be able to do, ask them
how they did it. Most families will be happy to share their successes
Noise
It
can be very difficult to hear in background noise. This is true
for everybody but a hearing loss can make a noisy environment
even more troublesome. Try to reduce background noise while you
are speaking with your child by choosing a quieter location or
lowering the volume of music etc. Of course this will not always
be possible but technologies are available which can vastly improve
noisy situations. Ask your audiologist about directional microphones
or FM technology which provides much needed help where noise makes
communication difficult.
This
article courtesy of Phonak
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