With over 500 babies born in Australia with hearing loss, the impact of hearing loss can be a lifelong experience for both the individual and family. For an Australian child that is growing and developing every day, the effects of hearing loss can impact them through their childhood all the way up to adulthood. It is important to understand that children with hearing loss are much different from an adult who developed loss of hearing at an older age.

Children, use their hearing to understand and learn about their surroundings and through hearing developing their communication skills. If they are unable to comprehend or communicate at an early age, this can affect their ability to build strong relationships with family, friends, within their career and their ability to succeed in the education system.

What Is The Impact For Children With A Greater Degree Of Hearing Loss?

Children who are diagnosed with hearing loss can also be diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). CAPD is a term used for a variety of disorders that result from a breakdown of the hearing process. To understand it simply, it is when the brain cannot understand what your ears are hearing because the auditory signal is distorted or damaged in some way.

Children who are diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder in Australia face many problems. It is firstly difficult to clearly distinguish speech in noise. This makes it extremely difficult to communication to others or to communicate on your own behalf.

Being unable to communicate or understand what has been said, can have many problems within the classroom for example, where many children with CAPD can find it difficult to focus, make sense of what the teacher is talking about or unable to communicate to fellow peers.

Failure to detect CAPD or being unable to receive the proper support services can lead to future problems in adult life such as isolation, depression, loss of income and broken relationships.