kat05

My 1,5-year old boy has been wearing his HAs full time since Christmas. He has been making new sounds and is now (thank God) used to them, however he does not have systematic reactions to loud sounds and his speech therapist is very anxious about that. Is this normal? Should we wait for about 6 months to evaluate his progress and then have the CI surgery? What is progress for a deaf kid wearing HAs? Not having a deaf person in our environment has made us have so many questions and nobody to answer them!
We are also very mixed up with his HAs ... The company told us that they don't amplify a lot when fitted to babies so they don't throw them away, however at times I feel they are of no use to him. Is there something like a protocol for amplification?

Deafness

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on AllDeaf.com

DeafCaroline

What do you mean by systematic reactions to loud sounds? You mean he doesn't react to them at all?

faire_jour

Wirelessly posted

if he is not reacting to very loud sounds, even with his hearing aids, it sounds like he is getting very little benefit from them. They should be fit for his individual loss, and appropriately amplifying. There is no reason a toddler shouldn't have appropriate amplification. If he has such a profound loss that hearing aids don't even allow him access to loud enviromental sounds, he is likely a candidate for a CI.

kat05

I mean that sometimes he reacts to lower sounds, while most of the times he is indifferent to loud ones. How long should we wait before we get the CI surgery? Is a 6-month period with full time HAs OK? I should note though, that he has been making new sounds himself (his speech therapist says he must be able to listen SOMETING but he has not connected sounds with results).

AlleyCat

His speech therapist says he must be able to listen to something? In order to speak, is that what he/she meant? If I understand that right, then that's not true. Many deaf children learned to speak by feel (placing hands on throat or chest to feel vibration and pitches.) I was one of those deaf kids. I hope that info helps!

kat05

Thanks Alley cat! Good tip.

messymama

Yesterday, I was able to wake up my son in the afternoon by calling his name, at a normal/low volume, close to his HA (well, actually he opened his eyes only when I told him "pizza is ready" but that may be a coincidence).

Yet, he often doesn't react to louder sounds. He has a filter for louder sounds, anyway, and hopefully all children has it, or their residual hearing may be damaged from amplification of sounds which are already loud!

I have no idea of what my son hears, actually. Sometimes he seem to hear a lot, sometimes nothing. I came to the conclusion that there's no way to know at the moment: he's not interested at all. He does hear something, since he takes aids off in noisy environment and gives some responses, but usually nt repeatable ones (fistr time, he turns to see what's making noise, second time, he knows so why turn, third time it's like "it's clear you're trying to test my hearing so FORGET ABOUT IT - I have 3 years and better things to do in my life").

Hearing for deaf kids is NOT like it is for us. And sometimes it's even not interesting for them as it is for us. Anyway, back to the question: how much important it is for you that he actually hears "something", and why?

As for your doubt, yes,I'd wait for the whole 6 months period at least.

__________________
Proud mum of two blessings: 5yo hearing girl and 3yo profoundly deaf boy

frankiesmom

frank is STILL learning to hear things with his hearing aids and hes had them what..about 7 months? there are times when i dont think they make a difference, but they do..its just very subtle.