I Hear Foundation empowers parents in playing a pivotal role in the effective habilitation of their hearing-impaired babies.

One of your child’s most important links to you and to the rest of the world is through sound. The sound of your footsteps as you approach to pick up your baby or the sound of your voice as you sing and talk to him from another room, all comfort your baby and make him feel loved even though you are not physically present with him all the time. The world of sound contributes so much to our feelings of security and belonging, and we are linked to it by our sense of hearing.

Sound is important to your baby’s well-being even though he has a hearing loss. In fact, we have to work much harder to make sure that the link between your baby’s hearing and sense of security are preserved. It is through hearing that a child learns to talk. You may have noticed that when you cuddle your baby and talk to him, he smiles at you but does not always imitate your speech pattern or try to respond with sounds of his own. Your child, because of his hearing loss, is not able to hear conversational speech and so he is unable to imitate the sound pattern used to produce speech.

In order to help your child hear sounds and your conversational speech more clearly, it is essential that he be fitted with appropriate hearing aids and that you continue to talk to him just as you would with a hearing baby. Our Audiology Department will first measure your child’s hearing loss and then help you make the correct choice of hearing aids for your child. We help you understand and manage your child’s hearing loss better so that you know what he can and can’t hear and what to expect of him. Most important, we will help you understand and help your child as best as you can.

The Audiology department:

• Accurately measures hearing loss in newborn infants in their first year of life using technologically advanced equipment.
• Prescribes and fits appropriate hearing aids for these babies.
• Manages the child’s hearing loss and monitoring hearing aid performance over time.
• Has developed a reliable initial and on-going MAPping facility for cochlear-implanted children under the age of 5;0 years in close co-ordination with their educational plan.
• Educates parents and families of hearing-impaired babies so that they understand the impact of their child’s hearing loss and handle and monitor their child’s hearing aids with confidence.

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