4-Yr Old Was Diagnosed with Mild Hearing Loss in Both Ears-what Do We Do Now?

If he has had no issues hearing people talk or understanding language why the hearing aids? It certainly seems like something that needs to be monitored but I don't understand why they would suggest hearing aids already for what seems really mild. My nephew has 75% hearing loss in one ear and they have not recommended hearing aids yet.

I'm with everyone else - I don't see any input from an ENT here, nor do I see any explanation as to why he has hearing loss. I would go to a pediatric ENT because I would want to know what caused the hearing loss. Once you know what caused it, you will have a better idea of whether or not it is permanent and if it is progressive. To me, these are the most important questions, because if you don't know what caused it, you can't keep it from happening again. And if the cause, whatever it is, is either ongoing or happens again (because you don't know about it and can't stop it), his hearing could continue to decline.

You want to know the cause and, even if the current hearing loss is permanent, you want to stabilize it so it doesn't get any worse.

Good luck.

(And, FWIW, I have mild hearing loss and function every day just fine. When I mention that a wear a hearing aid, people have no idea. Your son will be ok.)

ETA: As someone with mild hearing loss, I strongly disagree with those who say not to get hearing aids since you didn't notice the hearing loss. When a person doesn't hear well, they don't always do something obvious. In quiet houses and one-on-one situations, it's easy to follow conversations even if you don't catch every word because you can use other cues such as body language, facial expressions, and the situation to fill in the blanks. However, social situations in particular are difficult when you can only half-hear what others are saying, and it is exacerbated in groups of people where you can't look every person who is speaking in the eye while they talk (for a kid - in classrooms during group work, at recess, in gym class, on the soccer field).

Plus, your brain learns to adapt to a hearing aid - it has to learn to focus on important things while tuning out background noise, for example, focusing on voices and not the whistle of the air vent. We don't hear those non-important noises every day because our brain has learned to tune them out. When you first get a hearing aid, you brain has to learn to tune those things out in a different way. You don't just put in a hearing aid and suddenly hear perfectly, as if your hearing was never damaged. A person can't just wake up one morning and say - hey, I think I'll wear a hearing aid today - and have it work perfectly. It simply doesn't work that way.

Ok, off soap box.

we just had similar issues with my 6 yr old.. mild hearing loss after years of everything being fine. the audiologist we saw first said the ear was full of fluid. and referred us to an ENT. so if i were you i would find a pediatric ENT (Ear Nose Throat) dr in your area and have them evaluate the child. make sure they do the tympamogram and not just the hearing test too.. that tympanogram is how the audiologist confirmed the ear was fluid filled.
his regular pedi couldn't see a difference in a full ear and an empty one and the audiologist explained why its easy to miss.

One of my sons experienced hearing loss from having fluid in his ears.

He ended up having tubes in his ears and then his hearing improved dramatically.

I would ask about seeing ENT first, before going ahead with the hearing aid.

My son still has problems with hearing if more than one person is talking, or if there is background noise. He sits up front in class which helps.

Our audiologist did not mention ENT to us - my sister actually was the one who recommended we go there next. Glad we did. May not be the same for your son, but good idea to rule it out. Good luck :)

i know it seems overwhelming but he'll be fine, and so will you! both of my sons ended up on the very lowest end of normal, due to chronic ear infections and scarring from the tubes. talk to his teachers about keeping him at the front of the classroom so he can hear more easily.
i'd hold off on the hearing aids until you actually find he's experiencing difficulty. he won't know, of course, because his normal is his normal, but you're alert and will be watching out for signs that he doesn't hear a normal tone of voice, and his teachers will help you too.
and if he does need a hearing aid down the road, you'll get him fitted and he'll be fine with that too.
at the moment it doesn't sound as if it's really necessary.
khairete
S.

I don't have experience with hearing loss, but I have tons of experience with medical diagnoses and with having to make decisions, about whether to start a medication, whether to allow the surgery, etc.

One thing that has always helped me, and which might help you at your next appointment, is to ask the doctor: if this were your child, what decision would you make, and why? Of course, they can't tell me what to do, but often they offer valuable insight as a parent, or from what they've learned from other parents. Most doctors have been really helpful to approach the big decisions from a parent's perspective, not exclusively from a medical perspective. Try discussing this decision from a person-to-person, or parent-to-parent, point of view. It might help you by giving you more information, experiences, and insight to base your ultimate decision on.

If no one has noticed this including yourself, I would not do anything right now. Personally, I wouldn't even say anything to teachers etc because then they might start to see things that do. It exist. Just keep an eye out for any changes. Just my opinion. Does not sound like you have been to an ENT. Might be a good idea. Why was his hearing tested in the first place?

I tried to find a scale so I would understand "where" 4-8KHz" falls on the scale. I assume it's the lower range. My grandson was diagnosed deaf at just a few months old. His foster mom took him to an ORL/ENT doc who did the testing. He stood behind him and slammed a door, nothing. He got a drum out and hit it behind him, nothing. He was deaf.

When the doc went in to put tubes in his ears. There was so much debris in his inner ear that it took a couple of hours to clean it all out and do the tubes. The antibiotics he'd been on for ear infections previously evidently hadn't taken care of the infections.

After the doc cleaned out the ears and put in tubes my grandson could hear.

It was like night and day of course. Everything loud frightened him. He's okay now. Hearing changed his life. Maybe the range that your son can't hear well in is very very low or very very high. But what if you couldn't hear the sounds in that range. Would you be missing out on something wonderful?

When children are in a place with structure, they are good at doing what is expected of them even if they have hearing issues. This is probably why they didn't realize it about your child.

There are a lot of things that you need to consider for him. Listen to your ENT. If the doctor recommends hearing aids, get them. Accommodations at school will be important. An IEP will be very important. Classrooms with a lot of children can be very loud and echo-y. A child who has hearing issues will just "check-out". I know it's hard, but you might consider looking for a place with small classrooms, with carpet and lower student/teacher ratio. This is what a friend of mine did for her daughter. It made a big difference.

Continue with the speech therapy. That's very important and will continue to be for a while. Carry-over activities for language will be important too. Make sure the speech therapist is regularly testing receptive skills. You are thinking about speech, but receptive as well as expressive is critical, especially when there is hearing loss involved.

Hearing Aid will help. Sooner the better. Our daughter had complete hearing loss in her right ear due to an accident when she was 6. We got her the hearing aid. Fortunately she has the maturity not be conscious about it. If he has the aid sooner- he will get used to it and it will definitely help later in school. I see that now our child who is 12 has a tough time hearing in crowd, or she mis-interprets what I say. Really breaks my heart every time. Get the aid that matches his hair color and is not visible. Less obvious the better. Hope it helps- glad you got to know at an early age. Best wishes. Also do yearly check up-that will help you monitor any changes.

I truly appreciate all the opinions everyone provided! It just warms my heart and make it feel a little easier.