The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Digital hearing aids distributed to children

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Digital hearing aids distributed to children

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, FEB. 17. Children with hearing impairment can lead normal lives provided their parents seek early intervention from doctors and specialists.

Hearing aids can expedite their listening, speech and language skills, leading to their overall development, according to the Assistant Director of Ali Yawar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, Joan D'Mello.

Widex India, a joint venture partner of Widex A/S of Denmark, distributed Rs. 10 lakhs worth hearing aids, free of cost among seven children undergoing Early Intervention Programme at the institute here on Thursday.

Why the stigma?

The vice-president of Widex India, Barinder S. Sawhney, who distributed the aids among children in the age group of 13 months to two-and-a-half years at the institute in Bowenpally, said they were also distributing hearing aids to three other centres in the country to help conduct the study on how the aids facilitated children overcome their impairment. "It is our effort to create awareness and remove the stigma towards hearing aids. When one could wear spectacles for better vision without any complex, why can't one wear hearing aids?"

Unlike the analog hearing aids, the digital ones programmed as per the individual's requirements can amplify required sounds and suppress unnecessary ones. The digital hearing aids are available from Rs. 15,000 onwards. People of all age groups suffering from hearing loss due to age or other factors like infection, fracture of ear bones or disease could use them. The digital hearing aids, available in different sizes, would be not even noticeable, he said.

Parents' role

Ms. D'Mello said hearing impairment could be easily tackled if only attitudinal barriers were overcome and parents accepted the child's problem and helped him/her acquire auditory and speech skills with special training.

The institute would monitor the children with digital hearing aids for a period of three years and later the hearing aids would be given to other needy children.

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Andhra Pradesh