Hearing Aids For Babies

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29901, 15 August 1962, Page 6

Hearing Aids For Babies

The difficulties of children handicapped by deafness in learning to speak intelligibly and to understand the written and spoken language of others was described by Dr. D. M. C. Dale, of the Auckland School for the Deaf. In his paper, Dr. Dale discussed three ways in which contemporary scientific research had assisted deaf Children to overcome their communication difficulties, particularly in the field of hearing aids. Dr. Dale said that experiments had shown the advantages of using hearing aids even for profoundly deaf children. Even if they could get only a trace of sounds, they would benefit to some degree. The early fitting of hearing aids, at the ages of seven, eight or nine months helped overcome the difficulties of speech and writing later experienced by deaf children, he said. The aids were used as soon as the level at which the children could hear had been determined. Dr. Dale said it was important that the level be first determined because if the assessment was not accurate the aids might do no good at all, or do a lot of damage.