Hearing Loss

A child’s hearing ability can be affected by congenital or genetic issues, head injuries, loud noise, infections or brain damage.

Top Question: Is my child deaf? Possible indicators to watch for.

Hearing loss can occur anywhere in the auditory (hearing) system. Mixed hearing loss is a combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.

The two main types of hearing loss are:

1) Conductive Hearing Loss
This loss may be temporary and occurs when sound vibrations from the outer or middle ear are blocked from reaching the inner ear.
Causes: middle-ear infections, a perforated eardrum, earwax in the ear canal, unusual bone growth (otosclerosis), fluid in the middle ear (“glue ear” in children) or head injury.

2) Sensorineural Hearing Loss
This loss is permanent and occurs in the pathway from the inner ear (including the cochlea) to the nerve fibres that link the inner ear to the brain.
Causes: acoustic trauma (loud noise), head injury, stroke, mumps, meningitis, congenital issues, Meniere’s disease, brain or auditory nerve tumour or multiple sclerosis.

Deafness in Children

About 100 children in Ireland are born deaf every year (two per week), according to the national association, DeafHear.ie. In the wider population, about 17% of people have some kind of hearing loss. Your child’s audiologist should be able to explain what sounds your child can, and can’t hear.

Is my child deaf? Possible indicators to watch for.

Audiograms are charts used to record the results of some types of hearing tests. They show how loud a sound has to be, before your child will hear it (without hearing-aids). Separate audiograms will be completed for the left and right ears. This is because your child may be deaf in one ear (unilateral loss) or in both ears (bilateral loss).

Hearing Loss Thresholds
Term Hearing Loss in Decibels
Mild 25-40
Moderate 41-70
Severe 71-95
Profound 96+
Source: DeafHear.ie

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