Choosing a hearing aid for a child can be challenging when you're unsure which features would help their hearing the most. Thankfully, there are some standard recommendations that can make hearing aids easier for children. Here are some of the features that are important in children's hearing aids.
Wide Dynamic Range Compression
A hearing aid that compresses dynamics can be helpful for most children. This feature will help to compress the loudness of the different sounds your child hears. For instance, soft sounds will be made louder, and loud sounds will be made softer. This can generally improve the volume level of sounds that your child hears, without requiring as much adjustment to different volume levels. The times when you wouldn't want these features is when the child is interested in activities that require specific dynamic range functioning, such as being a musician.
Programmable Memory
Some of the modern hearing aids also include a programmable memory that allows you to default to different settings with the push of a button. This way, you can easily switch the settings when the child enters a new environment, such as moving from a quiet home to noisy playground. When you have this feature in place, you can spend a lot of time tweaking the hearing aid's settings upfront and then use it on the go to quickly adapt to new environments.
Directional Microphones
Another important feature is the ability to quickly switch between omnidirectional and directional microphones. An omnidirectional microphone can pick up sounds from all directions, and it's an important safety feature in a chaotic environment, where children need to pay attention to sounds coming from all directions.
A directional microphone, on the other hand, is designed to pick up sounds coming from only one direction. This can be helpful in the classroom; it will allow your child to focus on sounds coming from the direction of the teacher's voice and delete sounds that are coming from other directions. If you can teach your child the difference between these two settings and show them when to flip the switch, then this feature will make the hearing aid very adaptable for your child.
These features can help you to make hearing aids more comfortable for your child. With this feature set, you can reduce the amount of user error that your child faces while learning to work with the hearing aids. And as a parent, you'll be able to better program the hearing aid to different situations that your child will face. For more information, talk to a doctor such as those at Waters ENT Sinus & Allergy.
Share8 December 2015
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