Sound Waves

Most children with hearing loss have hearing parents with little experience of hearing loss in children, and often there is no family history of deafness. It can be a steep learning curve.

The good news is that right now, what your baby needs most is loving, responsive care. We know from research on brain development that the experiences your baby has in these early years will have a lasting impact on how their brain grows. You play an essential role in nurturing and stimulating your baby, helping to support their cognitive and emotional development⁸.

Everyday activities encourage healthy development. Each positive interaction builds valuable connections in your baby’s brain. Responding with love to your baby’s basic needs, like food and comfort, provides the safety needed for exploring the world around them. Talking, singing, reading, and playing simple games offer rich opportunities for language development from an early age.All these activities and interactions with people are ‘food’ for your baby’s growing and developing brain. 

While making decisions about managing your baby’s hearing loss, you’re laying down the foundation for future success and learning.

Communication involves learning to understand and express thoughts, feelings, and information. Learning communication skills is a key developmental task for young children. Communication helps them connect with the people around them and get what they need.

Babies start communicating right from birth. They communicate their feelings and needs to us very efficiently by crying. Babies also understand our communication. They calm when they hear a familiar voice. They listen intently and watch our faces when we talk and sing to them. They are developing the skills they need to understand language.

Communicating with your baby with UHL is no different from communicating with any other baby, and there are plenty of opportunities throughout the day to chat with your baby and enjoy the interactions you share. Young children need direct interaction with others, where people are talking about what the child is seeing and experiencing, to develop strong language skills[9].

• Talk to your baby throughout the day. Let them know what you are doing. ‘Mummy needs a cup of tea. Should we put the kettle on?’ ‘I can hear Daddy’s car!’ ‘Let’s go for a walk and get Sophie from preschool.’
• Babies love that high-pitched sing-song voice that adults use when talking to them. Parents across many cultures use ‘motherese.’ We speak in a higher pitch and accentuate the words. Babies respond to pitch variations well before they can tell differences between vowels and consonants.There is abundant evidence that voice pitch variations attracts a baby’s attention and helps them to understand speech¹⁰.
• When your baby makes sounds, moves excitedly, or cries, and you respond with words or a hug, you are helping build important connections in your baby’s brain that support communication and social skills. This back-and-forth interaction, often called Serve and Return, is like a game of tennis—it takes two people to play and it is fun! These turn-taking moments can start at birth and should happen frequently throughout your day¹¹.
• Sing songs and rhymes. Rhymes play an important part in language development. Babies love the high pitch, slow pace and rhythm. Rhymes spoken in this way help babies to isolate individual sounds and train them to hear individual sounds in words. Rhymes provide repetition of familiar words and actions, and opportunities for imitation, turn-taking, making requests and having requests understood¹².
• Read to your baby. Your baby will enjoy being close to you and listening to your voice. From the beginning, your baby will look forward to these shared times together, and you will be building the foundations for a love of language and reading.
• Read the same books over and over again. Children love to hear a story again and again. “Before long they begin to understand the look of print, the way words work in sentences, and how the world works—why this happens, and that happens—and how it all comes together to mean something. In other words, they learn to read¹³.”

When you share these special moments, be close to your baby. If you are sitting with your baby in your lap, have them facing you, so they can see your facial expressions and hear you clearly. When reading to your baby, make sure the better ear is closer to you and remember to whisper I love you in that ear too!

Our ability to communicate is a fundamental aspect of being human. We express ourselves through speech, gestures, facial expressions, body language, and writing. Communication conveys both meaning and emotion.

From the start, babies communicate by crying when they need something, by smiling and kicking with delight, and making happy babbling sounds when content.

In everyday interactions, we often use the terms speech, language, and communication interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings.

Speech refers to the production and perception of consonants and vowels that form the oral languages of the world. It is our physical ability to talk, including articulation (accuracy of sound production) and fluency (rhythm of speech).

Language involves the comprehension and production of words and sentences to share ideas or information. It can be oral, written, or signed. Language encompasses vocabulary, understanding the meaning of words, rules for combining words into sentences, and the use of language in different social contexts (pragmatics).

Spoken language has two components

• Receptive language refers to listening skills, understanding, and making sense of what others say, point to, or write.
• Expressive language involves talking skills, or combining messages to convey thoughts, emotions, and feelings.

Children begin developing speech and language skills from a very early age. Their experiences and environments provide learning opportunities to practice and learn language. While speech and language development follows a predictable pattern, children develop these skills at different rates.

Recent research shows that kids with (UHL) usually develop language and speech skills similar to their peers. An Australian study followed 34 children and found that by age 9, their spoken language, everyday functioning, social skills, and quality of life were all within the typical range. The study revealed that nonverbal IQ was the strongest factor in determining outcomes—not the level of hearing loss, which ear was affected, or whether they used a hearing device. That said, these children did struggle more with understanding speech in noisy environments and had poorer speech perception overall.³.

What does this mean for your child with UHL?

As a population, children with UHL have similar speech and language skills to their hearing peers. However, because some children with UHL experience difficulties in listening and language development, it’s crucial to monitor their speech and language progress and start early intervention if needed. With proper support and attention, children with UHL can develop strong communication skills and thrive.

Parents of children with UHL often ask whether they should learn Auslan (Australian Sign Language).

Auslan is the preferred language of the Deaf community in Australia. It’s a visual language that uses hand shapes, facial expressions, gestures, and body language. Sign languages have their own vocabulary, construction, and grammar.

Children with UHL have sufficient hearing in
one ear to develop spoken language effectively.

The middle ground: Keyword signs

Deciding on whether to learn Auslan is ultimately a family decision. Learning a second language comes naturally to young children but introducing Auslan does require a significant commitment from the whole family. Many families choose the middle ground and introduce keyword signs such as milk, stop, car, etc., alongside spoken words to assist communication. Keyword signs can be useful tools in situations where your child might have difficulties hearing such as at the pool, beach or park.

Learning Auslan

Why you want to learn Auslan will guide you in the quality of instruction needed and the best delivery style. For instance, parents seeking a basic understanding of Auslan or wishing to learn some keyword signs can achieve this from online resources.

If your goal is to develop proficiency in Auslan as a family, regular practice and a sign-rich environment at home is essential.  Involvement with the Deaf community can also enhance your learning experience. 

Children’s speech and language development is quite variable. Some children develop skills faster, while others take more time, even without underlying issues. However, early intervention is crucial if children with UHL are not progressing as expected. Bear in mind that speech and language delays might not be related to your child’s hearing loss, so you should always seek a professional opinion if you are concerned.

Discuss with your GP or early intervention team if:

By 12 months

• Your child isn’t trying to communicate using sounds, gestures or words.
• Your child isn’t using gestures like pointing or waving.

By 18 months

• Your child prefers gestures over vocalisations.
• Your child has trouble imitating sounds.
• Your child has trouble understanding simple verbal requests.

By 2 years

• Your child can only imitate speech or actions but doesn’t produce words or phrases spontaneously.
• Your child says only some sounds or words repeatedly and can’t use spoken language to communicate beyond their immediate needs.
• Your child can’t follow simple directions.
• Your child uses less than 50 words and doesn’t produce two-word phrases.

Also consult your GP or speech pathologist if your child’s speech is harder to understand than expected for their age:

• You should understand about 50% of a child’s speech at 2 years and 75% of it at 3 years.
• By 4 years old, a child should be mostly understood, even by people who don’t know the child. This is an important consideration for school readiness.

Aussie Deaf Kids has a comprehensive section on milestones of speech and language which you can use as a general guide to monitor your child’s language progress.