“Look, play dough! Have you got play dough in your ears?” – “No, they are my listeners, I need them.” A typical sandpit conversation for four-year-old Emil. When his playmates discover the hearing devices in his ears, he explains what the blue-and-white striped fitted objects are doing there, which he himself calls his “listeners”. Ever since his first year, they have been his bridge to the sounds of the world; he has a lot to thank them for.

“He’s very laid back about it,” says Michelin Kober, explaining her son’s easygoing attitude. Even though Emil’s speech development has certainly been very positive in the last two years thanks to his hearing aid, she sometimes wishes her son’s disability had been discovered earlier. For the parents, there were certain telltale signs early on that they could not ignore. “When he played, he played loudly and when he cried, he cried loudly”, recalls Emil’s mother. He behaved completely differently to his sister Emma, who is two years older. Moreover, it transpired that he could not hear noises that were some distance away, and his first words took their time in coming.

Despite a screening when he was born and a consultation by an ENT specialist, Emil’s hearing loss remained undetected by medical professionals until he was almost one year old. It was not until his worried parents sought a second opinion that it became clear that Emil is severely hard of hearing in his right ear and almost completely deaf in his left. After a visit to an aural therapist in Stuttgart, Germany, where the family lives, it all went very quickly. With the hearing aid, Emil’s linguistic development took great leaps; he started saying his first words within a week and soon after began discovering the world anew with all its acoustic dimensions that had previously been closed to him. “He realized very quickly that the hearing device brought with it new acoustic experiences. It was an incredibly in teresting time to see what was going on with him. He got quieter and quickly started speaking – he loved discovering new things and liked wearing his hearing device all the time”, recalls his mother. With the help of his “listeners” and a speech therapist, today Emil’s speech is normal for his age. The Schwerhörigenverein Stuttgart, an association for people with hearing loss, offers Emil and his parents a helpful forum where they can exchange infor mation with others and learn more. According to Michelin Kober, they discovered by talking to other parents that a late diagnosis is the rule rather than the exception.

Compared to other children, Emil’s hearing loss was discovered relatively early on, partly owing to his parents’ constant vigilance. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. That newborns’ hearing screening results vary is rarely considered cause for concern, partly because the ear canal may still be blocked with amniotic fluid or material from the birth canal in the first few days. Yet this is risky, for it means that telltale signs in children who are really hearing-impaired are often simply considered temporary problems, and no thorough examination is conducted. However, valuable time is lost when diagnosis is delayed, to the disadvantage of the child. For early acoustic stimulation is necessary for the maturation and cognitive development of the central auditory system. What the brain does not learn to hear in infancy can very rarely be learnt after a child turns two.