Sports And Hearing Loss: 2 Tips To Help Your Child Excel
Hearing loss plagues roughly 15% of children between the ages of 6 and 19. Young children who struggle with hearing loss often rely on hearing aids to help them enhance the audible world around them. While hearing aids can prove valuable devices when it comes to hearing better, they can present a unique challenge for children who want to get involved in sports.
If your child is athletic, here are two tips that you can use to ensure your child excels within a chosen sport without compromising his or her ability to hear in the future.
1. Tell your child's audiologist about the sports he or she plays.
When it comes to selecting the right hearing aid for your child, any sports that he or she participates in could influence this decision. It's important that you talk to your child's audiologist about the sports he or she plays so that the doctor can determine which type of hearing aid will be best suited to serve as an asset for your child rather than a hindrance to his or her performance.
An in-canal hearing aid might be better suited for children who play contact sports like football or basketball, while a behind-the-ear model is appropriate for children in sports like baseball or figure skating. Using your child's sports affiliation as a guide in selecting a hearing aid will ensure that he or she ends up with a device that doesn't interfere with his or her performance.
2. Invest in maintenance equipment.
While engaging in sporting competitions and training for games or meets, your child will likely produce a lot of sweat. Moisture is an enemy to hearing aids. Sweat can seep into the outer housing of a hearing aid and damage the delicate components inside, rendering the hearing aid useless.
If your child is going to play sports on a regular basis, investing in some maintenance equipment will help you protect his or her hearing aid from serious damage. Be sure to have a dehumidifier available to help eliminate sweat-related moisture from the hearing aid's battery and interior compartment while your child sleeps.
Hearing loss shouldn't prevent your child from participating in sports. If your child is athletic, you can make it easier for him or her to be competitive in a given sport by working with an audiologist, such as from County Hearing And Balance, to select the right hearing aid and investing in maintenance equipment to prevent sweat from damaging your child's hearing aids in the future.
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