Causes and Effects of Childhood Hearing Loss

A young child’s health problems affect families and entire communities. When the health problems fall into the categories of chronic and disabling, those affected face serious and daunting challenges. Often, the causes of childhood hearing loss are not as potentially preventable as the factors that can lead to hearing loss in teens and adults. Any person who suffers from hearing impairment can be the victim of an inherited disorder. When these occur in young children, the cause can be a malformed inner ear or a neurological disorder affecting the ear’s ability to transmit sound from the outer to the inner ear. When childhood hearing loss is the result of a family condition, the affected child has the advantage of having family members who are knowledgeable about the problem and its treatment.

Often, however, childhood hearing loss is the result of a congenital problem resulting from an illness or toxic exposure suffered by the child’s mother during the pregnancy. A young child who was born with normal hearing can also fall victim to childhood hearing loss because of an infection such as meningitis or Measles. When this happens, the child’s family might not be prepared for the hearing impairment. A young child with partial hearing loss may miss out on early treatment because the unsuspecting parents don’t see the warning signs. Most young childhood hearing loss is the result of infection or injury.

How It Affects Development

When childhood hearing loss strikes before the child has developed language abilities, the result can be devastating. While children who are born severely impaired to signing families do not experience a delay in developing language abilities, victims of childhood hearing loss in non-signing families face serious obstacles in acquiring language. A child younger than six is still trying to learn to communicate and socialize. If the hearing problem is noticed early and can be helped with hearing aids, the child has a good chance of learning to communicate normally. If the affected child has a social circle that uses sign language, he or she can also develop communication at a normal age. A youngster with childhood hearing loss who is taught to read lips and speak aloud usually does less well than the signing child because he or she is not able to pick up auditory social cues. The young child with childhood hearing loss depends on his or her family to discover the problem early and make the proper decisions.