Is Your Child Truly a Troublemaker, or Are They Just Having Trouble Hearing?
Johannesburg – In 2012, Venisha Naran, a speech language therapist and audiologist based in Johannesburg, conducted a routine hearing screening for a Grade 1 student at a private school in the city.
The referral included a brief description.
“They mentioned that they didn’t believe there was an issue with her ears, but she had recently moved from China and was struggling with English,” Naran recalls.
Naran performed the hearing test on the child.
She later screened her again to confirm her initial findings. After the assessment, she sent the young girl home with a note requesting a meeting with her parents: it wasn’t the language barrier causing difficulties – she had hearing impairment in both ears.
Throughout the learner’s school years, Naran provided her with three different sets of hearing aids.
Last year, she graduated high school in a mainstream setting and is currently pursuing a degree in engineering.
“Had her hearing issues not been identified, people might have continued attributing her learning difficulties to her second language when, in reality, she couldn’t hear,” Naran explained.
Screenings provide children with a brighter future
According to Naran, for every thousand infants born, up to three may be born with hearing impairment.
Additionally, some children may experience ear infections that could result in temporary or permanent hearing loss if they go undetected and untreated.
The difficulty is that young children often don’t even realize they have hearing impairment because they lack a frame of reference.
“Most of the time, they simply adapt,” Naran stated.
She cites an example of a little boy who had hearing loss in one ear.
He would tilt his head to listen and would only use the phone on one side.
However, he remained unaware of the reason for his behavior, and his mother didn’t notice until the hearing issue was discovered during a screening.
“These children often can’t communicate that they can’t hear,” added Naran, emphasizing that “they’re frequently perceived as uncooperative or inattentive, when they are actually children who cannot hear.”
Signs your child might be having hearing difficulties
Hearing impairment can present in various ways, some of which may be unexpected:
- Delayed speech and language development
- Inability to follow instructions
- Poor reading abilities
- Low academic performance
- Persistent fatigue
- Avoidance of social interactions
- Behavioral challenges
- Tilting their head to listen
- Frequent misunderstandings
- Requesting repetitions
- Increasing the volume on devices
- Failing to respond when not visible to them
- Ear pain, especially during infections
While these signs can indicate potential hearing impairment, they cannot definitively diagnose it, which highlights the importance of proper screening.
Naran advocates for hearing screenings to be a standard practice in schools, allowing parents the option to opt out rather than having to opt in.
“Many parents skip hearing screenings due to obstacles like cost and lack of awareness,” said Dr. Liza Street, a pediatrician and co-founder of Ajuda, a digital medical information storage service.
“Financial constraints often make screenings unaffordable, as parents prioritize essential needs like food, housing, and childcare, thus relegating screenings to a lower priority,” she continued.
“Moreover, many parents may not fully understand the significant effects that undiagnosed hearing problems can have on their child’s speech, learning, and social development.”
Ajuda aims to tackle these challenges through a school screening initiative that not only includes the screenings themselves but also provides secure digital storage for results in a complimentary Ajuda vault that the child can access throughout their life.
Importance of maintaining records
“We need an improved record-keeping system because currently, I send the original results to parents and only maintain a summary in a spreadsheet – we lose those results if parents misplace them,” Naran remarked.
This can become particularly concerning when children have abnormal screening results.
While it may not necessitate immediate treatment, that initial screening establishes a baseline, potentially offering valuable insights to healthcare providers long-term.
“Monitoring changes over time, observing variations in results, assessing the effects of interventions as the child matures, and understanding their development are all crucial for facilitating effective long-term care,” explained Taryn Uhlmann, co-founder of Ajuda and a strong proponent of preventive healthcare screenings.
Naran has witnessed this scenario more than once.
“With speech therapy, individuals have reached out to me years later requesting an assessment report because they were unable to locate it,” said Naran.
Through a dual approach of promoting screenings in schools and ensuring secure storage of results via the Ajuda vault, Uhlmann and Dr. Street aspire to equip the next generation with a lifetime of crucial personal health information.
“Having access to securely stored and readily available results means that, regardless of where your child is throughout their life, they will always have essential health information at hand, enabling comprehensive and holistic care,” Uhlmann concluded.
To learn more about Ajuda or to create your own free Ajuda health vault, visit www.ajuda.co.za.