By: Karyn Voels Malesevic, AuD, CCC-A, Manager of Audiology and Family Services
Children who have Down Syndrome can often have hearing loss, so a therapy center that also has an Audiology Department onsite can make coordinating care easier. Their hearing loss may range from permanent and needing hearing aids to having frequent middle ear infections and require consistent hearing tests.
According to the research article Understanding Hearing and Hearing Loss in Children with Down Syndrome, “Children with Down Syndrome are at a greater risk for permanent and transient hearing loss as compared with their typically developing peers. Long-term consequences of late or failed diagnosis, particularly in this population, can significantly affect quality of life, including school performance, speech and language, behavioral challenges, community engagement, and safety. Therefore, ongoing audiologic monitoring and otologic management is highly recommended for this group into adulthood.”
Easterseals DuPage & Fox Valley has Audiologists in our Elgin and Villa Park centers who are experts at working with children that may have been considered “difficult to test” by other clinics.
We are able to fit hearing aids and make repairs and earmolds on children and adults through state programs such as Early lntervention, Medicaid, DSCC, ORS, and via private insurance or private pay options with very competitive pricing.
At Easterseals we work with the local educational Audiologists, who serve children with hearing loss that are in school. That work allows for cohesive coordination between school testing and any hearing aid or other specialized services that may be needed at an outside clinic.
We are also proud that we can continue to see the children in our care as they grow up into adulthood via our audiology clinics.
For more information on our hearing services, visit eastersealsdfvr.org/hearing.
This is best for babies up to 18 months old or so. I fell in love with pilot hats and here’s why you should too. Not only are they cute, but they will make your life so much easier!! For my boys, pilot hats worked better than anything else when they were very young. The pilot hats should be lightweight and ideally have mesh sides or very thin material that will not block the sound from entering the microphones of the hearing aids. It’s important to get a pilot hat that fits well. If it is too loose, then it will be too easy for your little one to get his hands under the hat.
If pilot hats don’t work, but your child tolerates wearing headbands well, then consider trying crochet type of headbands (worn over the ear, somewhat like the mesh pilot hats). Some patients have found that tight fitting, crochet type of headbands are useful to hold the hearing aids on and these can sometimes be found at stores like Target or Walmart. They can also be found online at stores or on etsy.com.
Hooray for toupee tape! Some children benefit from using toupee tape on the behind-the-ear part of the hearing aid. I use this on my 4-year-old son’s hearing aids when he has gymnastics class! It helps stop his hearing aids from flopping off his ears. This is basically like 2-sided tape that you can use on skin. You can cut the tape into a small square or rectangle to fit onto the hearing aid. Place the tape on the behind-the-ear hearing aid, and then tape it to the child’s head since it is meant for skin contact. Some people have found this helpful to use along with the hats or headbands. My 4-year-old no longer needs a pilot hat, so this is a nice solution for when he is doing sports activities. You likely need to replace the toupee tape daily or whenever you take the hearing aids off your child and then put them back on him. Toupee tape can be purchased at places like Sally’s Beauty Supply (local stores carry this). 
According to the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) approximately 48 million American have hearing loss; 30% of adults 70 or older have hearing loss; and 16% of adult 20-60 have hearing loss. It is estimated that 1 in 5 America teens have some degree of hearing loss.
Although only 30-40% of the English language is visible on the lips, most people, whether they realize it or not, speech read to some extent. Relying on lipreading alone can be extremely difficult, but speech reading can be a nice supplement to hearing and understanding a conversation. And fortunately, a lot of the consonant sounds that are difficult for many hearing impaired individuals to hear can be “seen.” For example, “death” and “deaf”. The sounds “th” and “f” look very different on the face. Speech reading is more than simply lip reading, or using what you see on the speaker’s lips, it involves watching facial expressions and gestures to understand conversation.
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