walking

taylorjade.

taylorjade.

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my son is deaf, he is 22 months old

he has taken a couple steps on his own here and there but he is still very wobbly and unstable and i believe he is afraid to walk on his own as he is always reaching for both my hands when we walk.

i try to encourage just one hand, and sometimes i just hold onto the back of his shirt to try to get him used to walking without my hands but he isn't very keen on doing that for very long,

is this normal for deaf children? to not be walking at this age? his doctor and his audiologists say it is normal but i wanted to see what you guys had to say.
what age did your child(ren) start walking?

no professional he is involved with believes there is a problem, it is just the balance issue due to the hearing loss, but we are on a waiting list to see a physiotherapist just to make sure.
 
Definetely something wrong here....he's almost 2 years old and can't walk?
 
they told you it is normal for deaf children not to walk at that age?I do think children are still learning to walk at age 2. I can't remember what age they suppose to be running.

But I never heard of deaf children having balance issues. I don't have balance issues.
 
deafgal001 said:
they told you it is normal for deaf children not to walk at that age?
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yes, he is also a rather large (not fat just very tall and broad for his age) they said this is also affecting his balance

his doctor agrees with the audiologists at sickkids, his avt agrees as well

he saw a physiotherapist when he turned a year old and she said there were no problems other than his balance which the whole team said was due to his hearing loss
 
deafgal001 said:
they told you it is normal for deaf children not to walk at that age?
I do think children are still learning to walk at age 2. I can't remember what age they suppose to be running.

But I never heard of deaf children having balance issues. I don't have balance issues.
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well i didn't say everyone who is deaf has balance issues, i don't think it is the majority either but i think it also depends on the reason for the hearing loss
 
we just learned two days ago that he has one copy of a gene that causes pendred syndrome, they didn't give anymore information than that really so i've had to do much of the researching on my own,

i just discovered that this syndrome does cause balance issues, so i suppose that has contributed to him walking late,

i'm not sure then why all his doctors said it was just because he was deaf..
we just learned of this syndrome a couple days ago.
 
My daughter walked at 11 months, her friends in a Deaf/HOH play group all walked before 18 months... Do you have any playgroups where you are a lot of times they are also referred to as support groups.
 
if I were you, I would get another audiologist or doctor. I am not sure if they are doing a good job explaining things to you.
 
blank canvas said:
My daughter walked at 11 months, her friends in a Deaf/HOH play group all walked before 18 months... Do you have any playgroups where you are a lot of times they are also referred to as support groups.
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he goes to daycare, but there are no deaf/hoh children there, and as far as i know at the moment there isn't much in the way of resources in my area for playgroups/support groups and that sort of thing for deaf/hoh children
 
I would recommend finding out more about his syndrome because it is not normal for a deaf child to not be walking at this age. Has his vision been screened?
 
faire_jour said:
I would recommend finding out more about his syndrome because it is not normal for a deaf child to not be walking at this age. Has his vision been screened?
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i agree, but unfortunately i don't think sickkids is going to be of any assistance. so i'll have to look elsewhere, the thing is they didn't say he had the syndrome, he has one copy of the gene that causes the syndrome, and the surgeon said that there must be something else that they don't usually test for and basically ran off before i had enough time to think of what questions to ask.
yes, his vision is perfect, he has had everything checked out and everyone seems to agree that other than his hearing loss there is nothing affecting him in any way, this was until we had the genetic testing results back so now we will need more testing to see what else is going on

i guess i just assumed he wasn't walking because he is deaf and i assumed that would throw off your balance and equilibrium, i'm growing increasingly frustrated with sickkids for being misleading and not explaining anything.

from now on i'll avoid assuming professionals are right because ever since we suspected my son had some sort of hearing loss everyone has been very confusing.

the first person to see him was an ENT and said that after he had tubes put in he would be fine, and he "doesn't look like a deaf child"...his exact words.

very frustrating, anyway sorry i got a little off-topic needed to rant a bit there.
 
It is normal for deaf child not be able to walk past one year old.

For me, I did not start walking until I was four years old. I had a balance problem. When I walked on the sidewalk. I looked down on the sidewalk so that I don't feel like walking like a drunk. Years later, my Dad told me that I have to look straight ahead and see if I don't sway sideways, sometimes it worked but still no matter what I still have the balance problem, even today. It is the unbalance of the hearing loss which does not make it even like if you have eye problem and need to have a 20/20 visions with glasses but still hearing loss is totally different thing. That is why I see some HOHs have two hearing aids to make even. I can not hear with my right ear with an hearing aid. It was just a waste of batteries if I can not hear the sounds at all. So one hearing aid help me to hear sounds with my left ear. Hearing children can hear and can walk before they were one year old, but not deaf children.
 
I wonder that it was caused by some vaccine shots that might be a problem. I heard that some shots were bad chemicals. Sorry, I didn't want to scare you for me to say that.
 
I started walking at 9 months old and I was born with a 110-120 dB bilateral loss. My deaf brother started walking at 11 months. Need to check with your primary doctor and pls do not let them say it is because of deafness. Be firm with them and say you want a 2nd or a 3rd or even a 4th opinion.
 
Bebonang said:
It is normal for deaf child not be able to walk past one year old.
For me, I did not start walking until I was four years old. I had a balance problem. When I walked on the sidewalk. I looked down on the sidewalk so that I don't feel like walking like a drunk. Years later, my Dad told me that I have to look straight ahead and see if I don't sway sideways, sometimes it worked but still no matter what I still have the balance problem, even today. It is the unbalance of the hearing loss which does not make it even like if you have eye problem and need to have a 20/20 visions with glasses but still hearing loss is totally different thing. That is why I see some HOHs have two hearing aids to make even. I can not hear with my right ear with an hearing aid. It was just a waste of batteries if I can not hear the sounds at all. So one hearing aid help me to hear sounds with my left ear. Hearing children can hear and can walk before they were one year old, but not deaf children.
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As much as we share the same views, I have to disagree with you on that one. There has been no research proving that deafness has impacted a baby's ability to learn how to walk as far as I know.
 
I walked at 7 months old without any assistance, and so did my daughter.

I would check again with doctors to see whats up.
 
It's called vestibular balance problem and it is from a damaged auditory nerve, otherwise known as cochlear-vestibular nerve.

I have terrible balance problems because of this and know more than one other who do also. I also know more that one deaf person who have terrible problems orienting and walking in the dark because of it.

It is not at all uncommon.
 
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