Adaptation of Hearing Aid for Young Hearing Impaired Children

Abstract

In 1966, we have set up the Auditory Training Class for hearing impaired children.
The goals of this class are as follows;
1. To teach the child to tolerate headphones.
2. To help the child to discover that listening to sound is pleasant.
3. To show him how to respond consistantly to the presence and absence of sound.
4. To secure a more complete hearing test.
5. To select a proper hearing aid for the child, and to help him make optimum use of amplified sound.
6. To give the parents as much information as possible regarding the nature and extent of the child's hearing loss.
Since July 1966, through June 1967, we have finished adaptation of hearing aid for 51 young hearing impaired children. Out of them, 42 started to wear hearing aid every waking hour by the end of our auditory training.
Even they were very young, they will start to were hearing aid if we give them correct and reasonable auditory training for hearing aid adaptation.
Also our procedure and technique were mentioned in this paper, and it was emphasized that in order to obtain maximum benefit from hearing aid, the hearing impaired children should be fitted a hearing aid as soon as possible after the diagnosis is made.