HELPING

CHILDREN WITH
LISTENING
PROBLEMS

By Damien Howard
 This book

• This book is to help parents and

families understand more
about Conductive Hearing Loss
that comes from middle ear
disease (glue ear) and
Auditory Processing Problems.

• If you would like to know more

go to www.eartroubles.com .

© phoenix consulting 2006

 Listening problems

• Children with listening troubles

– can be cheeky at home
– can make lots of demands
– can get into trouble at school
– may bully other children
– be very shy
– think they are dumb.

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 How we hear

Small bones

Outside of ear
Ear drum

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 How do we hear?

• Sound is caught by the outside

part of the ear and moves
down the ear canal to the
eardrum.
• The sound makes the eardrum
vibrate, which moves some
small bones.
• The small bones help transmit
the sound onto the brain.
• The brain then works out what
the sound is.
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 Conductive Hearing Loss

• When sound can’t get through the

middle ear it is called Conductive
Hearing Loss (CHL).

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Pus
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 How many kids have it?

• Many young children have

conductive hearing loss.
• In early childhood classes one
third of children have conductive
hearing loss at any time.
• In many Aboriginal communities
most children have it.
?

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 Auditory Processing
Problems

• Conductive Hearing Loss creates

distorted auditory input.
• Persistent hearing loss can
disrupt children’s developing
auditory processing skills
• Poor Auditory Processing skills
means speech may be not be
easily understood, even if there is
no current hearing loss.
• Some children are also born with
Auditory Processing problems.

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 Similar social problems

• Conductive hearing loss and

auditory processing problems
(listening problems) can create
similar social problems.

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 What happens when
children have listening
problems?
 Hard to learn

• It is hard to learn at school.

• Schools teach mostly by
talking.

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 Kids think they are
dumb
• Children with listening problems
may not know what to do or how to
do things from listening to
instructions.
• At school and at home they see
that other children can understand
what to do from verbal instructions,
so think they must be ‘dumb’.

I’m
dumb

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 May feel left out

• Its hard for children with

listening problems to
understand what is said when
there are a number of people
talking.
• As a result children often feel
left out.
• They can feel upset about
anything else that makes them
feel left out.

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 Need help

• Children with CHL may need extra

help to do things. They
• especially need help that involves
showing as well as telling.
• may feel shamed if they get help in
front of others.
• may even refuse help so others
don’t think they are dumb.

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 Reading

• Children may have difficulty

with reading and spelling.

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 Teasing

• Because it is hard to listen to others

children with CHL may tease
others, especially when it is noisy.
• Other children, parents and
teachers can get annoyed with
them for this.

I won’t give
It back!

This document is copyright to phoenix consulting 2005 16

© phoenix consulting 2006

 Talking when quiet

Because it is hard for children

with listening difficulties to listen
when it is noisy, they may try to
talk at school when it’s quiet so
they can hear the reply of the
person they are talking to.

Shush!

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 Talking too much

• One way of making sure they don’t

get shamed by not hearing properly
is by children doing most of the
talking.
• Other children, parents and
teachers can get annoyed at being
ignored or not getting a chance to
talk.
Blah blah
blah…

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 Bossing and bullying

• Some children with listening

problems try to boss other children,
and even adults, to get them to do
what they want.
• Bossing may extend to bullying.

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 Being quiet and shy

• Some children are very quiet and

shy.
• These children often worry about
being with new people or being in
new situations.

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 Worrying

• They may try very hard to do the

right thing at school.
• They may worry a lot about not
being able to do things or getting
things wrong.
• They may be vulnerable to being
picked on by others.

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 Tantrums and fights

• Some children may work so hard to

cope at school that they arrive
home exhausted and emotional.
• As a result they may have tantrums
or get into fights or simply need to
rest after school.

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 Clingy

• Children may rely on family

members, especially when
dealing with new situations with
people they don’t know.
• They may ask repeatedly about
what is going on or what will
happen.

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 Watching others

One way to cope is to watch

what others do.
• Children who look around a lot
may be seen as being
‘inattentive’.
• If they wander around to watch
others may be seen as
‘hyperactive’.

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 Knowing what will
happen

• Children may like to know what

is going to happen so they
know what to expect.

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 Sport

• Children may have problems

playing team sports because it is
hard to hear other players or the
coach.

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 Loud noises

• As well as having trouble hearing,

loud noises may be painful.

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 More problems at
school than home
• Children may have more
problems at school because it is
often noisy at school.
• There are there are more
demands to learn by listening.

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 Parental experiences

• Parents often feel inadequate

because their children are difficult
to manage and relate to.
• They may be criticized in social
situations because of their
children’s behaviour.

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What Can Families do to
Help with Middle Ear
Disease?
 Breast feeding

• Helps protect against ear infections

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 Keep away from smoke

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 Washing

• Get kids to wash their hands and

face often so they don’t spread
germs.

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 Get medical help

• See your GP

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 How Families Can
Help Communication

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 Showing

• Show as well as talk

• Spend more time helping
• Let kids watch other kids

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 When talking

• Get close
• Make sure child is looking at you
• And can see your face

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 Noise

• Be aware that background

noise will make it even harder
to understand what is being
said.

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 Repeat

• Say important things two or

three times.
• Check understanding.

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 Let them know

• Inform them of what is going

to happen so they know what
to expect and don’t have to
listen as hard.

We will go to
the playground

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 Help kids understand

• about what they do well and feel

good about it
• they are not ‘dumb’ but may they
have more trouble listening than
others.

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 Talk to people about
what is in this book
• Talk with other people in your
family.
• Talk with friends and people who
look after your child.
• Talk to teachers.

Teachers

Child care

Family
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 Talk to teachers

• Let teachers know about hearing

or Auditory Processing problems.

• Teachers can learn more about

hearing problems at
www.eartroubles.com .

Hearing loss

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 Thanks

• To the following people and

organizations that helped putting
together this book.
• Kathy Currie
• Denyse Bainbridge
• Sherie Lochner

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 More information

• For more information on

listening problems go to
www.eartroubles.com

• For information on
communications training contact
Damien Howard on
• 08 89484444 or
damien@phoenixconsulting.com.au

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© phoenix consulting 2006

 Conditions of use

• This booklet can be used with no

charge by individual families.
• It is not to be sold for profit.
• Organisations that wish to print
multiple copies for distribution can do
so if they pay a $2.00 per copy fee to
Phoenix Consulting PO Box 793
Nightcliff NT Australia 0814.
• These materials were developed
without any public funding and any
fees paid will be used to develop
further resources for this neglected
issue.
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© phoenix consulting 2006