Communication is a vital part of living. In the process of communicating we share information with other people by talking and listening.

Children begin to learn to communicate from the moment they are born. They are constantly listening and very soon they are able to recognize the voices of their mother and father. And they learn to talk by imitating the sounds they hear.

Children with hearing loss can have difficulty learning to communicate because they cannot hear all or part of the sounds around them or even their own voice.

Typically, parents are concerned that their child might have missed valuable information in the interim period between birth and the detection of the child’s hearing loss. The numerous communication methods and techniques available today make it possible to overcome your concern.

Please check our Helping section to see a list of the different professionals and experts available to help you.

If a child has a hearing loss the basic development of language will often be delayed. Nevertheless, children with mild to severe hearing loss most often develop understandable speech.

Research has shown that even children with profound hearing loss can learn to speak. The earlier the hearing loss is diagnosed, the better. Fortunately the children are often identified early, because the signs of their hearing loss are more obvious than the signs of milder categories of hearing loss.

Communication is a lot more than just spoken language. In fact, there are more ways of communicating than most of us would think. Besides speaking we also communicate through hand gestures, facial expressions and other kinds of body language. Children with hearing loss use a number of techniques to communicate and adapt to new situations.

For further information on communication methods for children with hearing loss, please go to the Helping section.