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3 Ways to Convince Your Child to Wear Her Hearing Aids

Author: Amitava Sarkar
by Amitava Sarkar
Posted: Jul 21, 2015

Hearing impairments aren’t usually something one worries about with the young, but both genetics and injury can lead to your young child, pre-teen or teenager requiring hearing aids. However, adolescence is a delicate time. Anything different will set him apart from his peers and potentially make him feel self-conscious or even make him the target of bullying. This is a crucial time for your child’s self-confidence, but at the same time, you want her to be able to hear as well as she can, and that means she needs to wear her hearing aids.

Schedule a consultation with a hearing care expert to evaluate your child for hearing impairments and discuss the best set of hearing aids for him. These experts will guide you and your child through the process of wearing and caring for hearing aids and will offer advice for doing so with self-confidence. They’ll also have tips for wearing aids that won’t make her feel self-conscious and will be able to adjust your child’s hearing care according to her activities. If she plays sports, for example, they’ll tell her what kind of aid works best and how to keep it securely fastened as she exercises. With the guidance of a caring expert, you and your child will find a way to make her more comfortable wearing aids.

Nearly Invisible Aids

Today’s selection of hearing aids is much more advanced than it used to be. There are models of aids that fit so snugly and securely into the ear that no one could tell that there’s anything different about your child. Some even come with clear components, so even if they fit outside of the ear, they’re difficult to spot at a glance. Not having to explain the hearing aids to everyone your child encounters will help her dwell less on the difference. If she needs to adjust them, she just needs to excuse herself to the school nurse, the bathroom or changing room.

Better Hearing

It may seem obvious, but explain to your teen what better hearing entails. It means not having to ask her peers to repeat themselves over and over – which on is sometimes more embarrassing than wearing hearing aids. It means not missing out on what people say entirely, so she won’t fall behind with teachers’ lectures or misunderstand her classmates. It means a more enjoyable experience seeing movies and hanging out with friends. Better hearing actually makes your child "fit in" better because she won’t stand out or fall behind.

Your Child Not Alone

Convince your child he’s not alone, that there are other kids out there with hearing aids. If possible, you might get to know them through a support group or a counselor. Even if he doesn’t know anyone his age who wears hearing aids, ask him how many kids he knows who have braces or glasses and contacts. These are aids – for teeth and for eyes – that other teens may find embarrassing, but in the end they make the teens more confident because they’ll have straight, healthy teeth and they can see more clearly. Hearing aids are like that. Your child may feel different, but everyone is different, and everyone needs assistance in their own ways.

It’s normal for your child to feel embarrassed about wearing hearing aids, and it’s your job to help him adjust to them. Once he sees for himself how much better his hearing becomes, he might be more likely to remember to wear them, but until then, you can make the transition easier on him.

About the Author: Emmy Holpern is a school nurse and a mother of two from New Jersey. She recommends njhearingaids.com to parents of kids with hearing impairments.

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Author: Amitava Sarkar

Amitava Sarkar

Member since: Nov 27, 2014
Published articles: 349

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