Children who are deaf or hard of hearing sometimes may detect sounds without their hearing aids because they have what’s called “residual” hearing. It’s important to remember that these children have access to more sounds with their hearing aids on than they do with them off. They need to hear all of the sounds that make up speech in order to include them in their spoken language. Access to all sounds, at every possible waking moment, will give your child the best opportunity to develop speech and spoken language without omitting certain sounds they cannot hear without their hearing aids.
