May is Better Hearing and Speech Month!

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Kids with microtia and atresia usually have some degree of hearing loss. Most have their hearing tested every 6 months. Normal "behind-the-ear" hearing aids don't usually work for them because of the malformation of the ear and the absence of an ear canal. Kids with bilateral (affecting both ears) microtia wear a bone conduction (BCHA) or bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) on a headband. The BAHA can be worn on surgically implanted titanium posts once the child's skull has reached the required thickness. Aiding kids with a unilateral (one-sided) hearing loss is a disputed topic - some audiologists recommend it, some don't. In Shae's case, since she does have an ear canal and is on target for all of her speech milestones, we have opted not to aid. I'm still not 100% confident about that decision and plan to go through the whole discussion with the audiologist in July AGAIN. I know Shae hears me, and she has a great vocabulary, but I do want to be sure that I'm giving her all the tools she needs to succeed when she reaches school age. BAHAs are compatible with FM systems that teachers can use to ensure that hearing impaired children hear them clearly. So I guess we'll see how the next hearing test goes, and go from there!