AIBU to think my daughter does not have a regular hearing impairment?

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DD is eight and her third teacher has just approached us and stated that sometimes she does not answer, cannot hear well and that we should we get her hearing tested. Apparently displays classical signs of mild hearing loss.

Here’s the thing though- when it’s quiet, her hearing is bloody amazing. I said to DH the other day, “are we going to have dessert tonight?” in a normal tone of voice and seconds later DD is standing in the kitchen asking what dessert we have. So many times she’s heard us talking that we make an effort to be extra quiet, in a way we are not around her siblings. Her hearing in quiet environments is absolutely normal.

However, put her in a noisy environment or with a lot of background noise and she complainant everything is “blurring into one”’and she says pardon constantly. Ie, the background hum of a classroom or a coffee shop. When there’s background noise she’s a different child, she speaks less, talks far too loudly and complains she cannot join in with conversation.

Hence, AIBU to think that my DD does not have a regular hearing impairment, and then to ask does anyone have any idea what the issue could be? I don’t know how she can have good hearing and then as soon as there’s background noise she clearly has issues!

We have her booked in for a basic hearing test, but I’m sure that will just tell us that her hearing when it’s quiet is fine.

Thank you.

I’m another person with mild hearing loss, age related in my case. If the pitch of the voice suits me (like my sister’s rather high pitched tones) and the environment is quiet I can hear perfectly well. If the pitch isn’t right and/or the environment is noisy I am totally reliant on my hearing aids and even then I might miss a lot. I saw a play in the West End yesterday and could hear the female leads perfectly well. Even with hearing aids switched to telecoil and lip reading I missed an awful lot of what the male lead said. It was very frustrating as he got some big laughs.

I'm 49 and have a grommet. I know when ones fallen out because I find myself struggling to hear when with more than one person or in an area with a lot if background noise. I'm not bad at all in a quiet room and one to one. Glue ear sucks

DH and DD2 are both the same, frequently don't hear, or at least they completely mis-hear a word so they have no idea what you are on about, and DD2 struggles with conversations if there's a lot of background noise.

I had a very similar experience with DD's teacher. She had her hearing checked which was normal; and I asked the teacher to sit her where she was actually facing the teacher in the classroom, and could see when they were talking. That helped a lot.

I think if three teachers have suggested to you that your dd may have hearing loss, you should definitely take her to the GP for a referral. If it's not hearing loss, there may be another issue you need to address.

I had my hearing tested at that age and it was completely painless, so don't worry about putting your DD through any sort of unpleasant experience.

I can't say the same for when they syringed out the ear wax that had been clogging my ears up, but there's a reason they don't do that anymore