Observing your child’s localization ability
When your infant gets to about five or six months, you can better observe a true localization response by making soft sounds behind or to the side of your infant while he or she is looking straight ahead (be sure you are out of view when making the sounds). A soft rattle shake or a whisper should prompt your baby to turn his or her head toward the sound.
While we expect infants to startle when presented with very loud sounds, it is most important to see how well your baby responds to soft sounds (such as the speech sound “s").
During the first year, your baby will refine listening skills and should alert to and look for the sources of common sounds around the home, such as a ringing doorbell or telephone, slamming door, children playing, a musical toy and speech.
Acknowledgements
Phonak acknowledges the permission and assistance of the following organizations for their expertise in this portion of our website:
- The Better Hearing Institute
- The Infant Hearing Guide
