- We've all seen those tear-jerking videos
of children with hearing loss
hearing sound for the first time.
But what happens when all the tears of joy are gone
and the need to successfully use hearing treatment begins?
Well in this video, I'm gonna go over one thing
that can make a child's hearing loss journey
a whole lot easier; coming up.
(upbeat music)
Everyone loves to watch those videos
where a child is hearing their mother's voice
for the first time.
I am definitely one of those individuals
and I have probably watched hours of those videos myself.
However, while it is heartwarming to see
these initial reactions to sound,
this is just the beginning of a child's hearing loss journey
that has unique challenges that are completely different
from an adult's journey with hearing loss.
One thing that I do not talk nearly enough about
that I should be talking about
is that the prevalence of hearing loss in children
is extremely high.
According to the CDC, approximately 1.7
out of every 1000 infants fails
their newborn hearing screening,
and a staggering 15% of adolescents
between the age of six and 19 have hearing loss.
If you're a parent, it is very important for you
to identify if your child potentially has hearing loss
and to get them tested as soon as possible.
There are very specific milestones that you can use
to identify if your child potentially has hearing loss
based on their age.
But before I get into these milestones,
if you could do me a huge favor and click the like button,
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That being said, let's go ahead and get into the milestones.
For instance, if your child
is between the age of zero and four months old,
they should startle at loud sounds;
respond to your voice;
and calm down at the sound of your voice.
If your child is between the age of four and six months old,
they should move their eyes towards the direction of sound;
respond to the changes in your tone of voice;
and notice toys that make sound.
If your child is between seven and 12 months,
they should turn and look in the direction of sounds;
turn his or her head when you call their name;
respond to simple commands;
and understand simple words
like car, truck, daddy, and mommy.
If your child is between 12 months and 24 months,
they should be able to use many simple words;
listen to songs; point towards body parts when you ask;
point to familiar objects when you name them;
and follow basic commands.
If your child does not meet these milestones,
then you should schedule an appointment
with a good pediatric audiologist as soon as possible.
If your child is diagnosed with hearing loss,
then you need to decide if hearing treatment
is right for them.
And if it is, you need to get them treated right away.
Sometimes the best treatment option is a cochlear implant,
but if the best treatment option happens to be hearing aids,
there are a lot of good pediatric hearing aid options
out there that you can work with your child's audiologist
to determine the best one,
so you can have your own special moment with your child,
just like you see in these other YouTube videos.
But like I mentioned before,
a child's hearing loss journey can be even more complicated
than an adult's hearing loss journey,
but why does it seem like it's always the adult hearing aids
that have all the cool features that help them hear better?
For years, the only way for a child or a parent
to adjust the settings of a hearing aid
was to use a push button that was on the actual hearing aid.
Hearing aid technology did eventually progress
to the point where you could control
a child's hearing aid settings with a remote control.
But even then it was really hard to determine
which settings the child was in,
and if those settings were the right settings.
This problem was largely solved
with the introduction of hearing aid smartphone apps
that actually let you see the settings
of a particular hearing aid
and make changes to those settings.
The problem is these smartphone apps
were intended for adult hearing aids,
not pediatric hearing aids.
That's why Phonak, today's video sponsor,
developed the MyPhonak Junior app
that can be used with any of the pediatric Sky Marvel
and Naida Paradise Ultra Power hearing aids.
The Phonak Sky Marvel and Naida Paradise hearing aids
are revolutionary in their own right,
because they allow your child to do direct to Bluetooth
streaming of media right into their hearing aids.
They allow your child to directly connect
to an FM system at school.
And they allow your child to have
extremely durable hearing aids.
But now they also allow your child
to have their own smartphone app.
MyPhonak Junior is a child-friendly
hearing aid smartphone app
that gives you or your child visual reinforcement
to be able to interact with their hearing aids.
The app allows you or your child
to do a variety of different things,
starting with the ability to customize their app.
As you can see here,
they can enter in their own personal name
and they can add their own photo.
If they want to personalize it further,
they can go down to the My Hearing Aids section
and actually hit Customize.
This way they can name their hearing aids
and they can select the most appropriate color combination
to match the devices that they wear.
After they're done customizing their own app,
they can go in and see how much battery life they have left
and make sure that they are in the proper program
for whichever environment they're in.
Then they can even make the proper volume adjustments
on their own devices to make sure
that they're hearing their best.
There are even more advanced settings
inside of these hearing aids,
like Noise Reduction and Speech Focus.
If you or your child needs a little extra help
with their app,
you can go down to the Need Help section
to search through the frequently asked questions.
It also gives them an easy way to control
how they hear in the classroom,
because they can easily interact
with a school's wireless audio or FM system
inside of the app.
This can ensure that your child actually hears
their teacher, even if they're sitting too far away
from their teacher to hear them
with just their hearing aids alone.
And it can even help your child overcome background noise
that might be going on in the classroom
that would prevent them from hearing their teacher as well.
Now, if you're like any parent that I know,
you are extremely busy
and you're looking for any possible way
to save time throughout your day,
which is exactly why it's so cool and convenient
that the MyPhonak Junior app makes it possible
to actually have a remote support session
with your child's pediatric audiologist
directly through the app itself
without having to go to their office.
Just think of all the time that you would save
if you didn't have to call off work,
drive all the way over to your child's audiologist's office,
sign in, wait in the waiting room for the audiologist
to be ready, then go back in to the audiologist's office
to have a session.
You could do all of this
through your child's smartphone app.
Now you might be thinking,
"Cliff, I am not quite sure I'm comfortable
giving my child access to a smartphone app
to control their hearing aids."
Well, if your child is old enough to use the app themselves,
you can enable Parental controls
to limit their access to different parts of the app,
so they don't accidentally or intentionally
do anything that could negatively impact
their hearing aid experience.
If your child is not old enough,
or you just don't think they're ready at all
to use a smartphone app to control their hearing aids,
this gives you a great way to control
their hearing aids for them.
Along with Bluetooth connectivity,
hearing aid smartphone apps
are one of the biggest advances in hearing aid technology
in the recent years.
They give a hearing aid user more control
over their devices.
That being said, if you identify that your child
is not meeting their hearing milestones,
and it turns out that they actually have hearing loss
that requires treatment with hearing aids,
as a parent, you need to decide which hearing aids
are best for your child
and which hearing aid features are most important
as they embark on their hearing loss journey.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions, leave them
in the comment section below.
If you liked the video, please share it.
And if you want to see other videos, just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out my website, DrCliffAuD.com.
(upbeat music)
(light music)
- [Mom] Hi. Hi, we're gonna put your hearing aids in.
(light music)
(baby gurgling)
Oh yeah?
(light music)
Hi (indistinct)
(baby laughing)
Yeah.
(baby laughing)
Do you hear yourself?
(baby babbling)
- Hey papa.
- [Audiologist] Hi. Hi, darling, hi.
Can you hear, Peter?
(laughing)
- Can you hear this, Archer?
(laughing)
- [Mom] Yeah. You can hear.
You can hear, huh?
(laughing)
- [Audiologist] Okay. Hi.
- It's loud.
- [Audiologist] It's loud?
It will seem really loud,
'cause you haven't heard for a while. So-
- [Mom] Can you hear everything?
(baby babbling)
(baby laughing)
(upbeat music)