How Your Child’s Hearing Affects Their Schooling
School is an integral part of your child’s life. A child with difficulty hearing can often struggle academically, behaviourally, or socially at school. As independent hearing clinics, Find My Hearing Clinic knows that understanding how hearing can affect your child at school helps you recognise the signs of hearing loss impacting your child’s schooling so you can have their hearing tested and any hearing loss treated.
School is a complex and dynamic listening environment. Often there is a need to understand teachers and fellow students speaking in the presence of background noise, both in the classroom and the playground. The direction from which the speech is coming can change quickly, requiring a listener to change their focus quickly and making it more challenging to optimise positioning relative to the speaker. The nature of the school environment can mean that mild hearing losses, which were not previously apparent, can become problematic once a child starts school. This means a child developing normally in speech and social development can suddenly begin to struggle simply because their listening environment is more complex and they can no longer compensate for mild or transitory hearing loss.
Children often have episodes of ear infections and middle ear fluid due to their physiological differences, which means they can be prone to temporary hearing loss. Even a child with no previous indications of hearing loss and strong academic, social, and behavioural performance at school can start to struggle if they have a transitory hearing loss.
A child with hearing loss can struggle to hear speech sounds, making it challenging to learn to produce those same sounds. This can also make it tricky to develop other fundamental learning skills, such as reading, writing, and spelling. Furthermore, a child who struggles to hear can have difficulty following and hearing verbal information, further affecting their learning. This puts the child at a disadvantage to other children in the classroom.
Good hearing is also essential for social interactions with other people. This is particularly true for children learning the rules of social interaction. A child who cannot hear well can struggle to participate socially and understand the rules of social engagement. This can result in social withdrawal or inappropriate social behaviours, making it difficult to form friendships, which affects their schooling experience.
When a child does not hear well and struggles at school, it can lead to poor behaviours, expressing frustration and unhappiness. It is not uncommon for a child struggling at school, either academically or socially, to display disruptive behaviours at school. Once a child gets into a pattern of poor behaviour, it can be tricky to break that pattern, just as it can be to break a pattern of poor social interaction or academic performance. Further, a child who is tired and frustrated at school, may also exhibit poor behaviour at home, meaning the challenges they face at school spill over to their home life.
The effects of hearing loss on your child’s schooling can be huge. This can have lifelong ramifications for your child. However, by recognising when your child’s schooling may be affected by hearing loss, you can have their hearing tested and any hearing loss treated to minimise these impacts. If your child has academic, social, or behavioural issues at school, having their hearing tested is a good idea. If they do have a hearing loss, this can be treated. If they do not, hearing loss can be ruled out as a potential cause, and other possible causes can be investigated so that the proper support can be found to help your child.
If you want independent advice about your child’s hearing, your local independent hearing clinic is here to help. Based on the test results, we can test your child’s hearing and advise you on next steps. If you have concerns about your child’s academic, social or behavioural progress at school, contact your local independent hearing care professional and book an appointment at your local independent hearing clinic. You can find your local clinic through the Find My Hearing Clinic – Clinic Locator