The Best Reason to Get Your Hearing Checked

The following article was written by Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D., the executive director of the Better Hearing Institute, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public about hearing loss, its treatment, and prevention. It has been provided to Grandparents.com by our editorial partners at HearUSA. To obtain a free copy of the institute's publications, including "Your Guide to Better Hearing" and "Your Guide to Your Child’s Hearing," visit its website.

Finally! Your grandchildren's parents are going off on a weekend getaway and they're leaving the grandkids with you. Who better to babysit than Grandma and Grandpa?

Are you ready? Of course you are. Favorite snacks? Check. Bedtime stories? Check. Rubber ducky? Check. But you need more than just their favorite goodies to keep your grandkids comfortable and safe. For example, if they call out for you in the middle of the night, will you hear them?

According to the Better Hearing Institute, one in six Baby Boomers, and three in ten people over age 65, suffer from hearing loss. But the statistics don't tell the whole story. Almost everyone knows at least one person who has a hearing loss that affects his or her quality of life but resolutely refuses to acknowledge or do anything about it.

If you babysit your grandchild and you're one of the 24 million Americans who need hearing aids but don't have them yet, you might be putting your family at risk. Effective caregivers need to be environmentally vigilant to assure a child's safety; the ability to hear is a key component. The risks of not hearing a smoke or carbon monoxide detector, an intruder, or a child crying in the backyard could result in an injury, or far worse.

And it's not just the obvious dangers. Spending too much time speech reading while driving can cause a crash, as can failing to hear a siren. Older children also have been known to take advantage of an adult's hearing loss to get "permission" to do something the adult wouldn't agree to if they understood what the child said.

Do It for the Kids

A 66-year-old man was aggravated that his wife had dragged him to a hearing evaluation, and decided that he did not need the amplification the audiologist recommended. His wife, he insisted, just didn't speak loudly enough.

Eighteen months later, after a harrowing incident, he was back.

While the man was watching his three-year-old grandson, the child had opened the screen door of the living room, where the man had been sitting, and wandered down the street. A neighbor found the boy and brought him home, and the family soon forced the grandfather to take action about his hearing if he was ever again to be trusted to babysit his beloved grandson. Two days after reluctantly getting his hearing aids, he laughed and said, "What a fool I have been. This is not bad at all!"

Children, especially very young ones, will do the darnedest things. If you, as a grandparent, can't hear what they are up to, there's potential for tragedy, particularly if there is a swimming pool or other body of water nearby.

If you don't hear as well as you know you should, even with amplification, take precautions while caring for grandchildren. If you know you may not hear them leave the room, lock doors to keep young kids close by. When you're alone with the kids, turn off the TV, close your book, and focus on the children. And talk to your healthcare professional about other products that can help alert you to noises.

Safety First

According to a 2006 report by the Public/Private Fire Safety Council, adults 65 years and older die in home fires at a rate 2.5 times that of the general population, and that risk increases with age. Decreased mobility, resistance to new technologies, and, yes, hearing loss, were among the reasons cited for this phenomenon.

The biggest concern is failing to hear smoke detectors. The vast majority of people with hearing loss hear low pitches but not the high ones common in smoke detectors. Additionally, studies have shown that young children do not respond to smoke detectors as well as adults do. They typically need to hear a familiar voice calling them by name to wake up and get out of the house. Vocal smoke detectors are available at many hardware stores; they allow you to record a short message for your family.

Hearing loss is generally progressive, which means that even if you can hear the smoke detector today, you won't necessarily be able to next year. And since most people don't sleep with their hearing aids in, the devices will be of little use to you when a standard alarm goes off in the night. One solution is a system with a very bright strobe light, but these don't work for everyone, either. People with severe hearing loss should consider devices that will vibrate on the bed to awaken them; such products are almost 100 percent effective.

Carbon monoxide poses similar dangers. In March 2005, a Queens, N.Y., couple with hearing loss died because they were unable to hear the carbon-monoxide alarm, after they had apparently left their car running in the garage. Even if you have hearing loss, this kind of tragedy can be prevented with the proper alarms. If you have any kind of hearing loss, you need to explore these options with audiologists and assistive listening device specialists. Also, your local fire department should be alerted to your condition in case of emergency.

New Rules of the Road

Hearing-impaired people often use speech reading while they drive and may be completely unaware of how much time they are spending with their eyes off the road and on someone's face. Using hearing aids or assistive-listening devices to improve their ability to understand their passengers can be lifesaving.

Ask your adult child to take a ride with you during the day and evening hours. He or she can help you gauge any hearing loss, vision impairment, or other impediments to safe driving. For your own sake, as well as your kids' and grandkids', it is important to be responsible and promptly deal with any issues that arise.

Worst-Case Scenarios

Judge Carl Thibodeaux of Orange County, Tex., was shocked to discover a man working in his yard on Friday, September 23, 2005, as Hurricane Rita was bearing down and the area had received urgent evacuation warnings. "We found out the man was deaf and just had no warning that he needed to evacuate," Thibodeaux says. "We finally got someone to translate the message to him that a hurricane was approaching and got him out of the area safely."

Timely warnings save lives. No matter where you live, being able to receive and respond to severe-weather warnings, especially when you are taking care of your grandchildren, is an absolute must. Use the closed-captioning option on your TV (with the volume off) when you are alone or watching your grandchildren. If your local station doesn't provide this service, tell them they need to. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can make available to people who cannot hear well a special weather radio that provides visual and vibrating alarms and simple text readouts. Perhaps the best warning system is having a few neighbors who know that they need to check on you in an impending emergency.

No Reason to Slow Down

Just because you hear poorly doesn't mean you can't be a responsible caretaker for your grandchildren. If you wear hearing aids or use assistive devices, or follow one of many other coping strategies, your children can feel at ease leaving the kids with you. They know you'll be able to stay with the kids, rather than letting them wander off. You'll have smoke detectors you can perceive and will drive with devices and strategies that let you keep your eyes on the road. You will have notified local emergency personnel that you have special needs, and have a plan for dealing with emergencies that are likely to crop up in your area.

And when your kids need a caregiver, they'll know that they can put their trust in you.