I just spoke with my mom on the telephone and learned that my eight-year-old baby sister has been diagnosed with hearing impairment. Tests showed a range of loss between 25 and 50 dB. I don’t know whether those numbers represent different degrees of loss over different frequencies or different methods/instances of testing. According to Wikipedia, hearing loss of 15-40 dB in children is considered mild, and 41-55 dB is considered moderate.
Apparently, she started complaining of some hearing difficulty about three months ago. She had complained of it once before a couple of years ago, but tests showed no hearing problems, and it was chalked up to inattentiveness and selective hearing (which fit the “symptoms”). She is going to go to Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for further testing. All we know right now is that the loss is classified as sensorineural, meaning that it is a problem with the inner ear or nervous system, not a blockage or a problem with the middle ear.
The fact that it seems to have come on fairly suddenly has me worried, since we can’t identify any cause. (My mother is an MD, so she is fairly well attuned to the sorts of things that might be causes.) My worst fear is that it is an early sign of some degenerative neurological condition.
Babysis Smithee is without a doubt the coolest person I know. I hate to see anything like this happen to her, but I have to say that she is as well suited to handling it as anyone her age could be. She is a very talented piano player for her age and instruction level, and I would hate to see her give that up. (She’s not a prodigy or likely to be a future concert professional, but she is very good, and it has been very rewarding for her.) She will easily overcome any social obstacles she might encounter, as long as she doesn’t become discouraged. She’s extremely sociable, outgoing, and optimistic–an extrovert’s extrovert. She’s also at the right age that if it should be a progressive problem, she should be old enough to maintain her verbal skills, but young enough to adapt to implants and/or signing.
She’s a great kid and I lover her to death. I was 21 when she was born, and it’s been a wonderful experience watching her grow up. I only wish I got to see more of her.
My daughter had a hearing impairment at that age. The put tubes in her ears and nothing seemed to change, but a six months later her hearing was normal.
The exact same thing happened to me when I was around that age. I had the tubes put in my ears. I don’t remember it too well as I think I was in first or second grade.
That’s encouraging, but that sounds like it would be a treatment for some sort of blockage, not a sensorineural problem. According to my mom, the audiologist said it was irreversible. That seems like an odd thing to say when so little is known about what’s causing it, but there you have it.
Any other experiences people have regarding hearing loss in children is more than welcome. Even if it isn’t directly relevant or didn’t have a positive outcome, I’d still like to hear about it.
Ear tubes won’t help with a sensorineural hearing loss, according to my wife, who is an audiologist. The general problem with such a loss is that certain cells are dead or dying in the cochlea. This may or may not be happening with your sister, Alan, but further testing may reveal more. Or it may not.
Is your sister being seen by an Ear, Nose, and Throat physician as well as your Mom and an audiologist? Not that an ENT could do anything necessarily, but he or she might be able to offer more insight.
My niece had her first ear infection when she was three days old. They never stopped. By the time she was in Kindergarten, she had a 90% hearing loss on one side. She did fine in school, although when she was 6 her life’s ambition was to be one of the the ground crew for airlines, the one who get cool headsets and flashlights and get to direct the planes. She was devastated for about 10 minutes when the doctor told her she couldn’t do anything that would risk the hearing she did have. She grew up to be fine, either compensating for her problem or outgrowing it. She speaks normally.
I’d say don’t under-estimate the power of kids to adapt. She’ll be fine, even if it isn’t the same fine you expected a year ago.
For what little it is worth, it seems like Doctors have found dozens of cures and major aides that are especially good at helping kids with serious hearing problems. I would think and I would hope that she has a good chance of finding a successful solution to her problem.
I hope she is one of the lucky ones that can get almost complete hearing restored.
Thanks to everyone for your support and your stories. I really appreciate it.
Spoons, she hasn’t seen an ENT yet, but my mom found an excellent pediatric ENT who is seeing Babysis Smithee on Friday. He already spoke to my mom yesterday and was very helpful. My stepdad is faxing the test results from the audiologist to him today, so it is possible I’ll know something soon. I haven’t spoken with my sister, since she apparently doesn’t like being on the phone anymore since she can’t hear it well. It sounds like she’s doing just fine, though.
I hope they find what’s causing it and it can be treated! My son’s hearing was poor and he had tubes implanted. His hearing improved, as has been the case with others. I wish the best for your sister!
When I was 17 I became the older sister to twins, now 26 years old! (This is hard for me to believe!) When he was 15 my husband, too, was blessed with a baby brother. It’s wonderful to have these little siblings in our lives. Now my older children – 12 and 8 – have a little 2 year old brother. Circle of life!
My condolences to your sister - dealing with a sensory loss is not easy.
I’m no audiologist, but somewhere I picked up the idea that deafness is an relatively common condition. Babysis’ hearing loss is not necessarily the result of some degeneritive neurological condition - it could be brought on by infection, or a nutritional deficiency, or plain old genetics, or a billion other things, without touching the really good stuff between her ears. Odds are good that this is not your baby sister sliding away, but rather simply settling into a different rhythm for a while.
The plus side is, in addition to boosting the other senses, people with hearing loss tend to be much cuter as well. (My own daughter is deaf, and I’ve met a lot of deaf folks.) I can’t explain why, but it’s freaky.
Also, on review, I’ll echo what StGermain said about kids’ incredible ability to adapt. They’re tough (and smart!) little buggers. Keep her spirits up, and she’ll probably be fine.
Thanks, Alan. Good to know that Babysis is seeing an ENT, and it sounds like you’ve found a good one. I understand about doctor-patient privilege, but if you feel it is appropriate, could you let us know what the ENT says?
ENT doc’s can probably tell you more, but I know of one person who was deaf that received a cochlear inplant and is able to hear now for the first time sinse he was a little boy. I have no idea if this is even feasible for your little sister but technology is always advancing so even if it is’t yet an option, it may be in the future.
Dad of a kid with a CI here - they’re really useful only if the hearing loss is complete, since installing them pretty much destroys the cochlea for its original use. Even so, they’re incredibly awesome little doodads.
I’d also add that they’re generally only targeted toward folks what lost their hearing after they learned what spoken language sounds like. Last I heard, they’re not recommended for folks who’re prelingually deaf, such as me. So they might be OK for the OP’s babysister if things progress in that direction.
That said, goodthoughts to babysis. Losing a sense is never easy.
I don’t want to hijack this thread too much, but I absolutely must respond to this outdated information. For adults they’re generally only targeted towards folks that lost their hearing after developing speech skills. However, cochlear implants have been demonstrated to work just fine in children who are prelingually deaf, provided they’re followed up with adequate speech therapy - and if they’re implanted before age 2 or so, when language development really starts to take off, there’s generally very little lost in terms of speech development.
Having said that, I want to mention once more that CIs would be a very drastic step for Babysis at this time, since based on Alan Smithee’s description, it appears that she still has some hearing.
Alan Smithee, this may be a great opportunity for you and your family to start learning sign language. Even though you likely won’t need it for Babysis, it’s an incredibly useful skill, and can provide an opening to meet some wonderful people in the deaf community. And the ability to have a conversation across a noisy room really comes in handy.
