Hearts for Hearing creates life-changing opportunities for children and adults with hearing loss to listen for a lifetime.

2 to 3 of every 1,000 babies are born with some degree of hearing loss. In Oklahoma, we can expect at least 150 babies to be born with hearing loss each year. In 2000, Oklahoma mandated that every baby be screened for hearing loss before he or she leaves the hospital. Without newborn hearing screening, it is difficult to detect hearing loss in the first months and years of a baby’s life. Most children who are diagnosed with hearing loss have no risk factors for it.

Children who pass the newborn hearing screening may still acquire hearing loss due to various reasons. Acquired hearing loss can result from many things, including but not limited to:

Frequent ear infections
Viral and bacterial infections
A head injury
Exposure to very loud noises

Signs of hearing loss in children may include:

Speech is delayed
Speech is not clear (i.e., you and/or strangers cannot understand your child)
Turns the volume up too high when listening to a tablet, a smartphone, a television, etc.
Frequently says, “Huh?” or “What?” and often asks talkers to repeat themselves, particularly when he/she is unable to see the face of the talker
Seems to have significant difficulty understanding speech in noise.
Hearts for Hearing creates life-changing opportunities for children with hearing loss to listen for a lifetime. Our team of audiologists and speech-language pathologists work together to provide you with the tools you need to optimize your child’s listening and spoken language abilities. Our speech-language pathologists are also certified (or working toward certification) as Listening and Spoken Language Specialists, which means they have specialized training to support the unique needs of children who have hearing loss.

Historically, the families of children with hearing loss have visited separate clinics to see a pediatric audiologist and a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist. At Hearts for Hearing, our pediatric audiologists and Listening and Spoken Language Specialists work together with the shared goal of ensuring your child’s listening and spoken language needs are met at each session. We intentionally include a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist in most pediatric audiology appointments to support your child and family and to ensure we obtain comprehensive and accurate test results and provide optimal intervention as needed.