A new school year means new teachers, new classmates, and lots of learning. But before school bags are packed, there is one important thing many families forget to check: your child’s hearing.
Supporting Your Child’s Listening
Classrooms can be busy and noisy places. Children must listen carefully all day, blocking out background noise so that they can understand what their teacher is saying. If listening is tricky, it can make school much more challenging.
Listening difficulties can affect:
- Paying attention and staying focused
- Following instructions
- Learning new words and sounds
- Reading and spelling
- Keeping up and feeling confident in class
- Socialising with friends at break times
Because children often hide these challenges, they may go unnoticed until schoolwork gets harder or teachers start giving more spoken instructions and fewer visual reminders from Year 2.
What’s included in a hearing check?
A hearing check looks at how well your child’s ears are working.
It looks at:
- whether your child has healthy ears
- determines the softest sounds your child can hear, and
- whether your child can hear the difference between speech sounds
What does an Auditory Processing (listening) check include?
An auditory processing, or listening, check looks at how your child uses what they hear.
It looks at:
- how clearly your child hears speech
- how well your child hears in noisy environments
- how easy it is for your child to follow multi-step instructions, and
- observes your child’s listening behaviours, such as fatigue.
Support Your Child’s Listening & Learning
It is always a good time to check your child’s hearing.
A hearing check is recommended every year, as hearing can change over time.
If you have concerns about how your child listening, an auditory processing check is best done early. Finding listening difficulties sooner can help prevent problems with learning and confidence later.
Book a hearing and/or listening check with Little Allied Health today and help your child feel ready to listen, learn, and feel confident at school.