{"id":480,"date":"2020-12-16T19:27:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T00:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/?p=480"},"modified":"2020-12-16T19:27:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T00:27:47","slug":"how-to-help-your-child-with-hearing-loss-develop-social-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/how-to-help-your-child-with-hearing-loss-develop-social-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Help Your Child with Hearing Loss Develop Social Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether your child has hearing loss or not, it\u2019s normal to worry about their wellbeing. It\u2019s important to you that your child has a healthy, thriving social life, but for many children with hearing loss, it can be difficult to overcome communicative challenges and make friends. Below we\u2019ve compiled a list of tips to help your child develop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hearingfirst.org\/b\/blog\/posts\/help-your-child-develop-social-skills-and-make-friends\">essential social skills and connections<\/a> they\u2019ll need as they navigate life.<\/p>\n<h2>The Early Years<\/h2>\n<h2><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"children-social-skills-hearing-loss\" src=\"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/children-social-skills-hearing-loss.jpg\" alt=\"Children socializing on a bench.\" width=\"365\" height=\"243\" class=\"alignright wp-image-482\" \/><\/h2>\n<p>From when your child is a baby until they start school, we recommend the following strategies for fostering social development:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Schedule playdates. <\/strong>Meeting up with other families who have kids near your child\u2019s age is helpful in many ways. Children need to be around their peers in order to learn how to socialize, and they also need to watch you interact with other adults to learn what positive interactions look like.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create an auditorily friendly environment. <\/strong>People <a href=\"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/hearing-loss\/hearing-loss\/\">with hearing loss<\/a>, even if they wear hearing aids or use a cochlear implant, tend to struggle to have conversations when background noise is present. When your child is socializing with siblings, cousins or friends, make sure you keep TV and radio volume low and reduce other background noise as much as possible so they\u2019ll get the most from their interactions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Educate other parents.<\/strong> Talk to other parents about your child\u2019s hearing loss, what treatment methods you\u2019re using, what communication strategies are useful and what your goals are for their development. This helps de-stigmatize hearing loss and also teaches the parents to know how to talk to their child about their friend\u2019s hearing loss and communicative needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The School Years<\/h2>\n<p>Once your child is school-age, we recommend\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meeting families of classmates. <\/strong>Connecting with other families in your child\u2019s class is a great way to foster strong friendships, which often opens the door to other friend groups as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Enrolling in after-school activities.<\/strong> Put your child in extra-curricular activities they\u2019re interested in so they can meet peers who share their interests.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Talking to your child\u2019s teacher.<\/strong> Educating your child\u2019s instructor about their hearing loss and what they need in the classroom to succeed is important for your child\u2019s learning. Ask the teacher to reach out if they ever have any concerns about your child\u2019s performance or wellbeing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information or <a href=\"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/contact\/\">to schedule an appointment<\/a>, call Gulf Coast Audiology today.<\/p>\n<h2>Learn More About Hearing Loss<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"row-title\" href=\"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/is-hearing-loss-common-in-service-members\/\" aria-label=\"\u201cIs Hearing Loss Common in Service Members?\u201d (Edit)\">Is Hearing Loss Common in Service Members?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/hearing-loss-likelihood-increases-with-age\/\">Hearing Loss Likelihood Increases with Age<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/is-red-wine-good-for-your-hearing\/\">Is Red Wine Good for Your Hearing?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether your child has hearing loss or not, it\u2019s normal to worry about their wellbeing. It\u2019s important to you that your child has a healthy, thriving social life, but for many children with hearing loss, it can be difficult to overcome communicative challenges and make friends. Below we\u2019ve compiled a list of tips to help&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Whether your child has hearing loss or not, it\u2019s normal to worry about their wellbeing.","_seopress_robots_index":"","schema":"","fname":"","lname":"","position":"","credentials":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","locid":"","rating":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfcoastaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}