Hearing in humans begins in the gestational period, so that the baby can hear and recognize its mother’s voice from the time it is in the womb. Subsequently, throughout early childhood, the nervous system will mature and allow the nerve pathways and centers that will emit the auditory processes to gradually become specialized.
This specialization will lead the baby to receive sound waves from the environment through the outer ear and middle ear, they can transform these auditory stimuli in the inner ear, converting the mechanical vibration received into a bioelectric signal that will generally reach specialized areas. of the left cerebral hemisphere, for processing by the auditory nerves.
About 3 out of every 1,000 newborn boys have some degree of hearing loss . It can be mild, moderate or deep and they can suffer it in one or both ears. But, what are the signs that can indicate that the baby does not hear well?
Symptoms of hearing problems in babies
Hearing loss in children can impact the development of speech and language, the perception of emotions and social skills , all of which are fundamental aspects of brain development. Therefore, it is important to be able to recognize the signs that tell us that our baby may not hear well.
It is difficult to detect ear problems in a newborn baby, however, parents must be attentive to certain signs that could indicate an anomaly.
Although rare, early detection of a hearing problem allows treatment to begin before the language and communication stage is affected.
Symptoms of hearing loss can be, for example:
From 0 to 6 months
- That the baby is not startled by a very loud noise.
- That the baby does not calm down with the mother’s voice.
- That the baby does not respond to familiar voices or the sound of toys (rattles, mobiles, etc.).
- That the baby does not look or turn his head when we talk to him.
From 6 to 12 months
- That the baby does not imitate or does not try to imitate sounds.
- That the baby does not turn his head towards the source of a sound.
- That the baby does not react when spoken to.
- He seems to hear some sounds but not others.
at 12 months
- That the baby does not locate the origin of a sound.
- That the baby does not respond to his name.
- That the baby does not say simple words like “mama” or “dada”.
at 15 months
- That the baby is not able to point or recognize objects or people.
- That the baby is not able to understand simple commands.
- That the baby continues to babble and does not evolve into a more understandable type of speech.
at 24 months
- The child does not make simple two-word sentences or does not respond to simple questions.