BONUS - RUSTENBURG - Fifteen percent of school-age children have impaired hearing, which often gets misdiagnosed or interpreted as naughtiness. In 2012, Johannesburg-based speech language therapist and audiologist, Venisha Naran, did a routine hearing screening for a Grade 1 learner at a private school in Johannesburg.
The referral came with a brief. “They said they didn’t think there was anything wrong with her ears, but she had recently arrived from China and didn’t understand much English,” says Naran.
Naran screened the child. Then she screened her again to check her findings. She sent the little girl home with a note requesting a meeting with her parents: It wasn’t the English that she was struggling with – she had hearing impairment in both ears.
Over the course of the learner’s school career, Naran fitted her with three sets of hearing aids. Last year she passed matric in a mainstream school and is currently studying engineering. “I think if it had not been picked up, they would have just always thought her learning issues were because of the second language when, in fact, she couldn't hear,” says Naran.
Poor hearing manifests in many ways, some of them unexpected:
* Delayed speech and language development
* Can’t follow instructions
* Poor reading ability
* Bad marks at school
* Being tired all the time
* Avoiding social situations
* Behavioural issues
* Turning their head to listen
* Frequent misunderstandings
* Asking you to repeat things
* Turning the volume up on the TV or tablet
* Failure to respond when they’re not facing you
* Ear pain – in the case of an infection.
