Warning signs

This means that children with mild hearing loss may have difficulty in school, and exhibit attention, behavioral or social problems in the classroom.

Common warning signs for hearing loss include:

• Family member or teacher concern regarding
  
  
• Hearing ability
• Delays or differences in speech and language development
• Lack of attention or behavioral difficulties
• Poorer than expected academic performance
• Not responding to someone talking out-of-view, particularly with minimal distractions
• Displaying a surprised look when the child’s name has been called at a normal or even fairly loud level
  

• Using “what?” or “huh?” frequently
• Intently watching the faces of speakers
• Difficulty understanding speech in background noise
• Sitting close to the TV set when the volume is adequate for others
• Increasing the TV or stereo/tape/CD player volume to unreasonably loud levels
• Not responding to voices over the telephone or switching ears continually when the phone is utilized
• Not being startled by intense sounds
• Not being able to locate the source of a sound accurately