How To Get Your Child To Wear Their Hearing Aid

Has your child recently been diagnosed with hearing loss? It's something most people don't have to deal with until middle age or later. However, sometimes children can suffer from hearing loss, too. It can be a side effect of different diseases, a congenital condition, or as the result of noise exposure. Whether your child is a toddler or a teenager, getting them to wear their hearing aids  when they are diagnosed with hearing loss can be an issue until they get used to them. Here are some tips to help you ease your child into wearing their hearing aids and keeping them on.

1. Celebrate the First Time They Wear Their Hearing Aids

Make a big deal out of the day your child gets their hearing aids and puts them on for the first time. Celebrate it. Have a special family dinner at a fancy restaurant, go see a movie together, or even go to a theme park.

The important thing is to do something together as a family that you know your child will enjoy. You must also make sure the child knows the celebration is because getting the hearing aids is a big deal and a wonderful thing.

2. Make Wearing the Hearing Aids Part of Your Child's Regular Routine

From the very first day your child has hearing aids, establish putting them on and taking them off as a regular part of your child's routine. Make a regular time each day to put them on, such as just before breakfast or when your child is getting dressed.

Likewise, bedtime or just before it is a good time for taking them off. Be consistent about this so your child gets used to it.

When your child is very young, be firm about being the one in control of when the hearing aids go on and come off. As your child gets older, they can take responsibility for wearing them on their own.

3. Allow Your Child to Personalize Their Hearing Aids

Give your child a sense of pride and ownership with their hearing aids by allowing them to personalize them. When you take your child to the audiologist to choose the hearing aids, let them pick a special color or design they like. If your child feels in control of the way the hearing aids look, they will be more agreeable to wearing them.

Conclusion

Wearing hearing aids should be no different to a child than wearing glasses. The hearing aids are to correct a hearing problem just like glasses fix a vision problem. Don't think of the hearing aids as anything more than this, and your child will pick up on the fact that wearing them isn't a big deal.

Tell your child they are just like glasses, only for the ears. The more normal and routine you make the hearing aids seem, and the more control you give your child over them, the more likely they will be to accept them and wear them willingly.


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