Simple
Clues for Detecting Hearing problem |
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Baby
stiffens, blinks, screws up eyes, extends limbs or cries with a
sudden noise like banging at the door, or the telephones ringing. |
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Watch the
response of the baby when it clap hands at about on foot distance.
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The child
quieten, turn with widening of eyes, or change breathing pattern
when you shake a rattle/a bell a about 6 inches away from ear. If
a child consistently does not respond to above simple method, by 6
weeks, more detailed examination is indicated. |
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The best age
for formal hearing screening test is 8-10 months and not before 6
months or after 15 months. By 6 months child is sensitive to
sound, is able to sit well and has very good head control. In
addition he will turn his head to locate sound. |
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Absence if
babbling and cooing even at 1 year is warning sign. |
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No
spontaneous vocalisation, inability to understand simple commands
even at 18 months is a warning sign. |
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Language
Development |
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For a hearing
impaired child till the stage of babbling the language development
will be similar to that of a normal hearing child. As this stage is
passed the baby tries to imitate the environmental sounds. But a
hearing impaired child fails to do so. Because of the loss of feedback
(auditory) the language development in the child is delayed. After
finding out the degree of hearing loss, necessary guidelines should be
provided to the mother regarding speech stimulation. |
Advice
for the mother |
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Don't
overprotect the child |
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Talk to the
child whenever possible |
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Encourage the
child to produce new possible |
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Encourage the
child to produce new sounds |
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Avoid
motheresse (using baby language) |
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While
talking, face the child |
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Lighting
should be in such a direction so that the light falls onto the
speaker's face. |
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Reduce the
rate of speech |
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The
articulatory movements should be accurate; don't exaggerate it.
|
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Detection
of Hearing loss |
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No response
to loud sounds (noise makers) |
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Absense of
localizing behaviour |
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No response
to their own name when called out. |
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No startle
response, while hearing loud sounds during light sleep. |
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Using simple
tuning fork tests. |
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Using free
field audiometry (by nothing the orienting response). |
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Using
sophisticated instruments ( impedance ABR, BSERA) |
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Simple
Clues for Detecting Poor Vision |
| |
Early
Intervention for Visually Impaired infants : What can the mother do at
home. |
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Encouraging
exploration |
|
 |
Gently
guide your baby's hand towards the sound of a toy and keep
decreasing the amount of help offered. |
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If your
child has light perception, use toys that light up or objects
with reflective surfaces. |
|
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Senses
as Learning Tool : |
|
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Shake
your baby's arm and leg and keep repeating the name of the parts
you touch. |
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Allow the
baby to finger print with dough, |
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Outdoor
play in sand, grass or mud to develop sense of texture or sense
of smell. |
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Make your
baby cross the living room with blanket, carpet, mat put in
different corners of the room. |
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Let the
baby be in the kitchen with you and expose him to different
smell while you are cooking. |
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Children's
rhymes, stories with sound effects and song and game with
motions all help the baby to become aware of sounds and get
listening skills. |
|
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Body
Image |
|
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To draw
your child's attention to individual body parts place a small
pillow on his leg or arm and encourage him to knock it off.
|
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Place an
over sized plastic ring on your baby's wrist or ankle and
encourage him to remove the ring. |
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Guide
hand to each part of the baby as you sing, related nursery
rhyme. |
|
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Concept
Development : |
|
|
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Object
Permanence : |
|
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Guide
your baby's hand to a hidden toy or tap the toy on the floor to
give him clue. |
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Peek-a-boo
games, pulling scarf off a hidden music box etc. |
|
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Gross
Motor Development |
|
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By
using you body or a small pillow for support, guide the baby
as she develop such skills as rolling, propping herself, lying
on side and sitting. |
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To
assist head lifting, place a pillow under the baby's chest
while lying on stomach and use a sound toy infront of her. |
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As the
baby begin to sit independently, a toy positioned on left or
right can encourage turn over and reaching, stimulating
movement of upper part of body while the rest remains
stationery. |
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For a
baby just begining to crawl, use sound toys or music box at
short distance and encourage baby to reach out. |
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Make an
obstacle course with a starting and end point to give
experience of "under", "over", "on"
and "through". |
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Follow
the leader games are fun. |
|
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Land
marks and clues : |
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Through out
the day, you can reinforce the idea of land marks and clues by
describing them as your baby encounters them. for example say. "I
hear the key in the front door. Daddy's home". |
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Encouraging
Independent Mobility at Home |
|
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If your
child is about to bump into a dangerous object guide her hand
to wards it so that child learn to use her hand as "bumper".
Attach textures to the lower portion of walls to encourage the
child to explore the walls. |
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Place
toys on low shelf and help the child to relocate them. Courtey
: The light House, National centre for vision and child
Development - New York. |
|
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HEARING
AIDS |
|
Hearing aid is
an electronic device which makes the sound louder to the listener.
When an adult or child with learning loss wears a hearing aid, which
is selected to give optimum benefit, this quality of magnifying sound
helps a lot. |
|
For children
with hearing loss, a hearing aid helps them to hear what they can not,
otherwise hear. It enables them to learn to hear speech of those
around them and there by learn to speak. This is of great value for
speech development. With training and practice, they can get maximum
benefit out of their hearing aid. They can wear hearing aid in various
places - home, school, playground, cinema etc. Proper care of the
hearing aid can lengthen its life and ensure good performance. |
|
A hearing aid
should be worn as long as a person wishes to hear which means that
once a child is assessed as requiring a hearing aid, it should never
be discontinued. Since inner ear damage is irreversible, hearing of
children with nerve deafness can be restored to normal or improved
only with the use of hearing aid. |
|
Early
identification is the process of detecting hearing loss at the
earliest through various methods. Early identification is very
essential in order to foster speech and language development in
hearing impaired children. Hearing loss can be detected when the child
is 6 months old. |
|
Hearing aids -
indicated in children with |
 |
Sensory neural loss |
|
Mixed hearing lair (If the
loss cannot be corrected by Surgery / medication) |
|
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Hearing aid
include a wide range from the popular and widely used pocket type to
the more sophisticated behind the ear in the canal type models. |
Names
of the hearing aids manufacturers |
|
Philips. |
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Rexton |
|
Alps |
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Novax |
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Danovax |
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Elkan |
|
Arphi |
|
|
Price varier
depending upon the company as well as the aid category (mild,
moderate, severe, profound) |
Contributed
by : Ms Deepa John, Audiologist and speech pathologist,
childcare center, Cochin |
CENTRES
FOR SPEECH & LANGUAGE |
All
the centres mensioned below have facilities for BERA and provision of
hearing aid. |
| KARNATAKA |
All
India Institute of Speech & HEaring
Manasagangotri
Mysore - 570 006 |
Institute
of Speech & Hearing
Hennur Road, Kariyanannapalya
Lingarajapura
Bangalore - 560 084 |
Dept.
of Speech & Hearing
ENT Dept., Kasturba Medical College
Manipal - 576 119 |
Dept.
of Speech Path & Audiology
NIMHANS
Bangalore - 560
029 |
College
of Speech & Hearing
Dr. M. V. Shetty Memorial Trust
A. B. Shetty, Mangalore - 575 001
|
|
| KERALA |
Child
Care Centre
Gandhi Nagar, Cochin - 20 |
Dept.
of Speech Path & Audiology
SCTIMST, Medical College
(PO)
Trivandrum - 695 001 |
National
Institute of Speech & Hearing
Palace Road, Poojapura
Trivandrum - 695 012
|
Society
for Rehabilitation of
Coginifine & Communicative disorders
Brothers House, Near Village Office
Ullor Jn., Trivandrm - 695
011 |
Sppech &
Hearing Centre
Keral Housing Colony, Talap
Cannanore -
670 002 |
Speech &
Hearing Centre
Dept. of ENT, Medical College Hospital
Calicut - 673 008 |
Dept.
of Audiology & Spech Patho
Dept. of ENT, Medical
College Hospital
Kottayam - 686 008 |
|
| ANDHRA
PRADESH |
Rani
Chandramani Devi Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre
Chinna Waltair
Visakhapatnam - 530 023 |
AYJNIHH
(SRC)
C/o NIMH
Manovikar Nagar, PO Banenpally
Secunderabad - 500 029 |
Ramkote
Speech & Hearing Clinic
3-5- 121/D/1, Mazmuller
Bhavan Road, Ramkote
Hyderabad - 500 001 |
|
| GOA |
Dept.
of ENT
Goa Medical College and Hospital
Panaji - 403
001
|
|
| TAMIL
NADU |
Institute
of Speech & Hearing
52/A, Rajaram Salai, KK Nagar
Trichirappalli - 620 021 |
Dept.
of ENT
CMC Hospital
Vellore - 632 004 |
Ramakrishna
Institute of Paramedical Sciences
395, Sarojini Naidu Road,
Avarampalayam
Coimbatore - 641 044 |
Madras
Audiology & Speech Therapy Centre
95, Kutcheri Road,
Opp. Police Station
Chennai - 600 004 |
Dept.
of ENT
JIPMER Hospital
Pondicherry - 605 006 |
Dept.
of ENT
Govt. RM Hospital
Thanjavur - 613 001 |
Institute
of speech & Hearing
Madras Medical College
Chennai
- 600 003 |
Bala
Vidyalaya
Shastri Nagar, The Hindu Srinivasa Parthasarathy
Trust
Chennai - 600 003 |
|
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