Blog

If a child is struggling in school or has poor attention, they should be tested not only for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but also for hearing loss!

This is because the symptoms of these two conditions are similar, and in some cases a child can have both.

A child with ADHD is often impulsive, has difficulty paying attention in class, has poor organizational skills, avoids tasks that require sustained mental effort, and is easily distracted compared to their peers.

Hearing loss can be mistaken for ADHD or another learning disorder, often leading to an inaccurate diagnosis. Let’s not forget that even mild hearing loss can cause a child to miss up to 50% of what is said in class! There are some ways to distinguish a learning disability from hearing loss. For example, children with ADHD develop speech skills along with their peers, while children with hearing loss show a delay.

Treating hearing loss will significantly help a child in school. Accurate diagnosis is the key to a child’s successful academic performance, followed by appropriate intervention and treatment by a specialized team of health professionals. Hearing loss can be diagnosed from the first day of life through a newborn hearing test. An audiological test at a specialized pediatric ENT can easily determine whether a child suffers from hearing loss.

Some children with hearing loss have a delay in speech and language development.

In addition, they tend to have difficulties with speech perception, vocabulary knowledge, and grammar. If they do not receive early diagnosis, intervention and treatment in the form of hearing aids, along with speech therapy, they will lag behind their peers in this area.

Simply think of a child who cannot hear his teacher! He will inevitably have difficulty focusing, paying attention and completing tasks. Children with hearing loss make increased effort to understand speech, which leads to fatigue in the classroom and low self-esteem. This condition can easily be characterized as poor academic performance or inattention.

Children with hearing loss do not respond when spoken to, give inappropriate answers to questions and have difficulty in their social interactions. Of course, this does not mean that every different behavior in the classroom is due to a hearing problem. For example, children are easily distracted during class, are more interested in talking to their classmates than listening to the teacher, and are not motivated to participate in class work.

However, if you as a parent suspect that your child has hearing loss, visit a pediatric ENT for audiological evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and recommendations for managing educational goals. If you are a teacher and observe the above behaviors in a child in your class, discreetly inform the parents to check the child for a possible hearing problem.

The correct diagnosis and appropriate intervention will completely change the child’s life!