The importance of early detection of hearing impairment

  Due to children’s own behavioral characteristics and parental carelessness, as well as the ancient Chinese saying that “your people are late in speaking”, many children’s hearing impairment is discovered late, and some children are not even discovered until they start school, which seriously affects the rehabilitation effect and misses the best time for language development.  In everyday life, parents or caregivers should be concerned about how their children respond to sound and speech. At 3 months of age, children can be awakened by loud sounds during sleep or open their eyes to sudden high-fives when they first fall asleep; around 6 months of age, children can track sounds and actively turn their heads to find the source; at 11 months of age, children can imitate simple sounds such as “mommy”, “baby”, etc. when sudden or peculiar sounds attract their attention. “At 12-15 months, children are able to point out their eyes, ears, nose and other body parts according to the adult’s questioning; at 2-3 years old, children are able to say simple sentences.  As long as parents pay attention to the child’s response to sound and speech, and compare with other normal children of the same age, it is not difficult to find out whether there is a hearing impairment. Once a hearing problem is suspected, the child should go to the hospital to check the hearing condition, make a clear diagnosis and intervene as early as possible.