When a child starts to speak, it marks an exciting milestone in their development that parents celebrate. Hearing your child say "mama" or "baba" for the first time fills parents with pride and happiness. However, if your child does not begin to talk within the expected timeframes, it can lead to concerns. In this article, we will be talking about the direct relationship between hearing and speech development for children.

Have you ever wondered how a child learns to speak?

Hearing plays a crucial role in a child’s ability to acquire speech and language skills. Early hearing tests for infants are essential to ensure that a child has normal hearing, which is fundamental to their speech development. Hearing sounds and words helps children learn to talk and understand. By listening to and imitating their parents, they start to produce speech sounds correctly, helping them recognize and build their vocabulary.

What happens when a child has hearing loss and is left untreated?

When a child has hearing loss and it remains undiagnosed, such as by not visiting a hearing aid center for hearing screening, it hinders their ability to hear sounds consistently. This limits their auditory exposure and leads to speech delay and language development. The impact of hearing loss on speech varies, but untreated cases can result in unclear speech, articulation errors, limited vocabulary, and poor sentence comprehension.

Children with hearing loss often have difficulty producing speech sounds accurately, especially when they have not undergone a hearing assessment for newborns. The children might speak too loudly, too softly, or mumble, as they may not hear their own voices. Without intervention, this can lead to poor communication skills and low self-esteem as children struggle to communicate and may fall behind their peers.

Importance of earlier intervention and speech therapy

Early intervention is crucial. Parents should seek out speech therapy in Malaysia and get their child's hearing checked by an audiologist in Malaysia as soon as possible. Treatments like middle ear correction or hearing aids, available at the best hearing aid centers in Malaysia, can significantly reduce the impact of hearing loss on a child’s speech and language development.

At 20dB Hearing, we offer comprehensive hearing assessments for newborns and provide expert speech therapy in Malaysia. By working closely with a professional audiologist in Malaysia and speech therapists, we aim to minimize delays, helping children reach their full potential.

Phan Yuen Ling , Audiologist at 20dB Hearing Miri