Signs & Symptoms
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Hearing Loss
It is estimated that seven out of every 1,000 school-aged children have a hearing loss. These hearing losses are often mistaken for learning or behavior problems. A permanent or even temporary hearing loss can have serious effects on a child’s speech and language development.
Many parents and teachers fail to notice that a child may have difficulty hearing because they do not know what signs to look for. The following signs may indicate a hearing loss. If your child shows one or more of the following signs, seek professional help from an audiologist.
Signs which may indicate that your child is having difficulty hearing:
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Is unable to localize sounds or locate a person calling his name
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Fails to pay attention when spoken to
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Gives the wrong answers to simple questions
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Frequently asks for repetition of words or sentences
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Often confuses consonant sounds
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Pronounces some speech sounds incorrectly
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Has frequent earaches, colds, running ears, upper respiratory infections or allergies
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Functions below potential in school
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Has behavior problems at home and at school
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Is often withdrawn and moody
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Exhibits squelching (posturing and facial expressions indicating strain while listening)
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Demonstrates poor responsiveness to verbal requests (especially when not face to face)
Don’t neglect the warning signs of a hearing loss. Early discovery and treatment can minimize the learning delays caused by hearing loss.
Stuttering
Children seem to be most disfluent during the preschool years, particularly during the ages of 2-4.
Generally, revisions, interjections, and word and phrase repetitions are very common in children’s speech. Sound and syllable repetition, sound prolongation, and broken words are less common. However, there is a wide range of behavior considered to be normal.
Most children show each type of disfluency from time to time. This is considered to be “normal disfluency.”
While disfluency is common in most children, certain patterns of disfluent speech are not quite as typical. The presence of some of these behaviors may indicate that the child is having disfluency and beginning to react to the interruptions:
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Frequent sound and syllable repetition
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Syllable repetition in which an “uh” vowel replaces the correct vowel in the word (puh-puh-peach)
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Frequent prolongation of sounds that become longer in duration
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Tremors (trembling of the muscles)a round the mouth or jaw during speech
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Rises in pitch or loudness of the voice during the prolongation of sounds
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Tension and struggle behavior while saying certain words
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A look of fear in the child’s face while saying a word
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Avoidance of or delay in saying certain words
Read more about Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD or APD) on page five
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