Equipping parents with sound advice may help them identify hearing loss problems in children, which otherwise may remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated.
Hearing loss in children often remain undiagnosed and can cause problems in their academic performances and lead to deficiency in attending, difficulty in attending and problems of low self esteem.According to the researcher Judith Gravel from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, parents should be given free guidance and advice on how to identify the problem of hearing loss in children before its too late for the physicians to help the children get back to a regular life. In her research, Dr Gravel had outlined ways to make parents recognize the signs that accompany normal hearing at different stages of child development, detect the signs of a hearing loss, and be aware of the treatment options that are available today.
The research findings show that one reason parents tend to ignore the problem of hearing loss in children is that they think use of the hearing aids will stigmatize the child and cause their friends to treat them differently. However in giving in to such feelings, the parents are compromising on the quality of life for the child who faces the actual difficulty of being able to hear less.
Reference: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, news release, July 2005
