Two components that will impact an infants early auditory development: 1) severity of the hearing loss, and 2) time spent wesaring amplification each day.  The first few years of life are crucial times for the child's brain to learn to understand the sounds around them--create an auditory pattern. Babies with hearing loss need the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of sounds on a daily basis., and then try to imitate these sounds:

• Calming to mother's voice and startles to loud noises.

• 4-5 months turn to source of sound (localizing)

• 6 months baby reacts to changes in volume 

• 8 months baby understands familiar words, sounds,  and can listen and discriminate between different sounds.

​All of these skills are important in the acquisition of oral language (speech).  

If your child has an opportunity for hearing sounds, it is important to expose them to the sounds along with visual supports for them to understand the sounds.

 

Happy Listening!