Children's hearing aids - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Children’s Audiology service can help with children’s hearing aids, their fitting, hearing aid reviews and repairs.

Initial hearing aid fitting

During your first hearing aid appointment we will assess your child’s hearing. We will also use this appointment for the first of your child’s hearing aids.

Usually we carry out Real Ear Measurements (to check the hearing aid performance in the ear). These measurements are used to program the hearing aids and involve placing a slim rubber tube in your child’s ear for a moment.

For younger children it can be useful for you to bring a favourite toy to distract them during this procedure.

Hearing aid reviews

We use hearing aid reviews to help understand your child’s hearing. We aim to get feedback about your child’s progress from you.

With your permission, we will also ask supporting professionals. For example, the sensory support worker and speech and language therapist, for their feedback.

During these hearing aid reviews, further hearing tests, checks of hearing aid performance and new impressions are arranged as needed.

If necessary we can also re-programme the hearing aids and carry out Real Ear Measurements. This is to check the hearing aid performance when it is in the ear.

Reviews for babies

For a young baby there would normally be several hearing aid reviews during the first year of use. As they grow and develop, we gather more detail about their hearing loss and the hearing aids can be fine tuned.

For babies less than two years old, these reviews would typically take place every three months.

For the ages of two to four/five years there would be reviews approximately every six months.

From about the age of five years, children normally have an annual review.

If you or any professional has a concern about your child’s hearing or hearing aid use, their hearing aid review can be brought forward.

Replacement earmoulds and hearing aid repairs

For replacement hearing aid earmoulds and hearing aid repairs, we recommend that children have an appointment with a paediatric audiologist or at an outreach hospitals. These appointments can be arranged outside of school hours, so please telephone for an appointment.

It can be beneficial to set up rolling appointments for young babies who may need impressions every three weeks.

New earmoulds can be fitted in clinics, posted out to your home or can be collected from any of our clinics. Sometimes the sensory support service can arrange to collect earmoulds to fit at school.

For babies and young children, your visiting sensory support teacher can help with fitting earmoulds at home.

Children’s earmoulds and hearing aids are available in a range of colours. If your child has a favourite logo/sticker that would fit inside an earmould, they can bring it along. Please ask for more details.

Batteries

You can get batteries from many healthcentres as well as from all the hospitals where we provide clinics.

Please dispose old batteries safely – they should not be disposed of with general household waste. We can take in old batteries and swap them for new ones.

The audiologist will discuss the easiest way to obtain batteries locally.