Aahan Ent Clinic

Hi,

I am Riddhi Potdar, Audiologist and speech therapist, Aahan Ent Clinic, Mumbai. Today we will be talking about early identification of hearing loss and its importance. Reduced hearing equity during early childhood interference with speech and Mobil language development especially significantly reduced auditory input in cases severe profound hearing loses, adversely affect the developing auditory nervous system. It can have harmful effects on child overall socials, emotions, cognitive and academic performance. We all should be knowing that the first 4 years of life are regarded as the critical period of speech and language development. In this period, the elasticity and the availability of the brain to learn any new skill is at its best. So, when the problem identified early and the child receives the appropriate amplification devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants, he can take full advantage of this critical period and enjoy normal social development.

Lesser hearing loss often goes unnoticed. However, the child is present with unclear speech, unwillingness to communicate, difficulty in understanding instructions and need to ask for repetitions. These children also show the poor class performance due to adverse class noise in the worse condition. So, this problem must be recognized as early as possible. It is advised that the newborn baby should be screened one month of age by hearing impairment. At 3 months of age, they should be diagnosed with hearing loss. And at 6 months they should be fitted with an appropriate with hearing aids or cochlear implantation. Along with newborn babies, it is also advised that primary school-going children should be screened at regular interval to identify any hearing impairment and management should begin at the earliest. For more information, contact us through Lybrate.

Thank You.

Hello,

I am Hunny Somani, Audiologist and speech therapist. Today we will be talking about presbycusis. What is the meaning of this? If the hearing loss is associated with the ageing as the individual grows old, his hearing loss starts happening. Now, what are the causes of the hearing loss? It is basically caused by the damage in the ear and the auditory nerve due to the age. In presbycusis, we see a higher frequency that is more affected compared to the lower frequency or low pit sound, this means the presbycusis person will have difficulty in hearing to the telephone which is the high-frequency sounds.

Usually, in presbycusis, both the ears are affected or equally on both sides. They might have difficulty in listening to the sounds or understanding the speech in background noise. Moreover, the male voice is clearer compared to the female voice. How can we help people with presbycusis so that they can understand the speech or the sound in the background? They actually avoid talking to people with background noise. They can start using ear protective devices, earplugs. And last but not least, the hearing gears. Usually, an audiologist does the complete evaluation of the patient in order to select a proper hearing gate. Now once the hearing is selected, we fit the hearing to the patient and its advances are depending on the type and degree of the loss of the patients.

Basically, all the patients will have a different adaptation to the hearing gate so the outputs depend upon the individual itself. Now a few communication tips can be given to the patient with presbycusis. Now supposing we are talking to the patient with the hearing loss, you should actually talk and face the patient. Avoid talking to the patient in the background noises. Talk a little louder than the normal but do not shout. Because it can make the sound much unclearer for them. Try to rephrase the sentences into a smaller and simpler way for them. And always make them sure about the topic of the discussion. For more information, you can contact me through Lybrate.

Thank You.