Why ear health is important
The first 3 years of life are when communication, social and learning skills develop. With healthy ears, children can:
- learn language and talking
- listen to family stories
- listen to music
- talk with family and friends
- learn at school
- feel good about themselves
- get a job later in life.
Ear disease and hearing loss
Ear disease can create hearing loss – either for a short time or for life. Hearing loss can affect things like:
- the ability to listen, learn and talk
- school attendance
- behaviour, perhaps causing irritability and reduced attention
- making friends
- self-esteem.
Recognising hearing loss
Babies and young children with healthy hearing will:
- react to loud, unexpected noises
- turn their head to follow noise
- respond to familiar voices
- be able to locate and move towards noise.
Older children with healthy hearing will:
- respond when called from behind or from another room
- be aware of signs of danger (hear cars before crossing the road, hear sirens)
- not ask people to repeat themselves or say ‘What?’ all the time
- not need to turn the TV up loud to hear it.
Even when children seem to have healthy hearing, take them to a health service for regular ear checks. This will help make sure their ears and hearing stay healthy.
