If your child has hearing loss and you are looking for a hearing aid in Bremerton WA for him or her, you should start your search with a certified audiologist. At your visit, you will learn about the different options available, how they work and what models are best for which type or nature of hearing loss as well as your child’s age and general lifestyle. Knowing that the ability to hear is directly related to the ability to develop good speech and language skills makes it vital that you do work with the highest trained audiologist you can find.
Depending on your child’s age, you will be either looking at a behind the ear (BTE) style of hearing aid or an in the ear (ITE) style of hearing aid. The latter is generally reserved for older children, such as teenagers while the BTE hearing aids are generally recommended for babies or younger children. This is due to the BTE style’s ability to accommodate different earmold shapes and to easily detach and be reshaped or remade as your child grows. The earmold is also easy to handle and be cleaned which is important so that you can inspect and do listening checks with it regularly. The behind the ear style of hearing aid also works to help a wider variety of hearing losses and the soft material is more comfortable and therefore less of a bother to your child.
When you are looking at behind the ear options for your child’s hearing aid in Bremerton WA, you will learn that they all have a microphone, a volume control, amplifiers with processors, a battery compartment, the basic earmold itself, a tone hook and the switch to turn it on or off. The shell of the earmold will need to be replaced as your child grows to ensure the most comfortable fit as well as a secure one. The younger the child, the more frequently the earmold will need to be replaced as babies and young children grow faster than older children. Babies as young as four weeks old can utilize a behind the ear hearing aid. Digital hearing aids provide good flexibility to be adjusted for amplification, frequency response and more and are good options for children.
The younger your child is when they start wearing hearing aids, the easier it will be for them to adapt to it. However, there are ways that your child can learn to easily wear their hearing aid and your audiologist can help show your child how to do this. Finding an audiologist who is experienced with children will make finding the right hearing aid in Bremerton WA a much nicer experience for you and your child.
