Thought to be slow learner, child in Mumbai turns out to be hearing-impaired

MUMBAI: In what can almost pass off as a case of gross neglect, a Malad couple mistook their daughter’s hearing impairment for slow development. It took them as long as nine years to finally realise that their daughter was suffering from hearing loss since birth.
The child, now 10, speaks like a three-year-old. The child, according to her parents, barely spoke till she was five.They still did not think anything was amiss. Her mother said, “We initially thought many children start speaking late and she could be one of them. We were told the same by our friends, family and even a doctor”.
Later, the parents started experiencing difficulty in admitting her to a mainstream school. “One of the local schools told us that she is a special child and should be sent to a school where she will fit in,” said the mother. Interestingly, the parents managed to get her admitted in a mainstream school. The mother added, “She hardly spoke but did not do very badly in studies. We had to speak louder to make ourselves audible.”
It was only last year when the couple took the child to Andheri’s Kokilaben Hospital that they found out about her real difficulty. The family claimed they could not fit her with a hearing aid even then due to financial crunch. Finally it dawned on the couple last month that the child needs to hear well in order to speak properly.
They started consulting audiologist Devangi Dalal, who termed the incident shocking given that the couple was educated. She found out that the child had been suffering from hearing loss since birth and the parents were completely negligent about it.
Dalal told TOI, “I was shocked and disappointed with her parents. She had mild loss of hearing in one ear and moderate in the other one. She could hardly listen and therefore she hardly spoke. We fit her with a hearing aid following which her speech became much better. We intend to work with her so that she gets used to the hearing aid.” She added that her academic performance too should improve.
Dalal said that parents need to be much more responsible about the milestones and try and understand if they do not reach them on time. “Time has come to make the hearing screening test compulsory for infants so that such deficiencies can be picked up early and treated,” she said.