Technical School
Hearing Aids
Your audiologist will recommend and fit your child with two hearing aids. Hearing aids are adjusted so that the amplification they provide is matched to your child’s specific degree of hearing loss for that ear. You should mark the hearing aids with a red dot (with paint or nail polish) for the right ear to avoid mixing the two hearing aids. It is important to remember that hearing aids amplify all sounds in the environment and not just speech sounds.
Types of hearing aids
There are several styles and types of hearing aids. For children, the behind the ear hearing aid is commonly the style of choice. The two primary types are given below.
a) Analog hearing aids: These have traditional hard wire circuits and are adjusted by the audiologist with simple screw type adjustments. These range from providing very little amplification for mild hearing losses, to significant amplification for profound hearing losses. Your audiologist will fine tune them in the office. These are the least expensive.
b) Digital hearing aids : These hearing aids use computer chips. The sound is first digitized, and then amplified. Since adjusting digitized sound is more precise, these hearing aids provide greater flexibility to match the way they amplify sound to your child’s hearing loss. It is also easier to incorporate noise cancellation circuits and different amplification programs for different environments in the same hearing aid. Prices vary greatly based on the features you select. The amplified sound from digital hearing aids tends to be less distorted than the amplified sound from analog hearing aids.
There are other, less common styles and types of hearing aids. You can read more about them here.
Care and Maintenance
Here are some things you need to do to take care of your hearing aids and maintain them in good working condition.
a) Keep the hearing aids in a dry aid pack consisting of a jar or bag with silica gel in it. Your audiologist can give you one or you can also get silica gel packets from a pharmacy and put them in a bag that can be closed securely.
b) Keep hearing aids away from moisture, and any sprays such as hair spray. Remember to remove the hearing aids when bathing your child.
c) Use huggies or fishing line attached to a safety in on your child’s clothing to secure the aids and prevent them from getting lost if they fall out of your child’s ear.
d) If the hearing aid squeals while in your child’s ear, then reinsert it. If it continues to squeal, check that there is no crack in the earmold tubing. Your child may need new earmolds if there is no other reason for the squealing. You need to get new ear molds as soon as possible, since a squealing hearing aid prevents your child from listening as well as they can.
e) wash the ear molds with warm soap and water and let dry overnight. This will prevent buildup of wax in the ear mold. In humid conditions, you may need to check frequently for moisture droplets collecting in the ear mold tubing and use a twisted pice of tissue as a wick to soak them up. You can also get an air blower for this purpose from your audiologist.
More detailed information on care and maintenance of hearing aids is available at this Phonak site.