Anyone got a child with moderate hearing loss?

[wrinkleseverywhere]

DS has always been at the bottom end of the normal spectrum for speech development so no one has ever taken my worries that seriously. Now he has started school, it has been more apparent so he was referred for a hearing test just to rule out hearing problems.
It turns out he has hearing problems! I'd never noticed anything. The audiologist gave us a report & referred us to an ENT as he couldn't see a reason for it (no congestion etc). For those familiar with these reports, there is a baseline of 0 but normal range goes down to -20. One ear is between 0 and -20; the other between -10 and -30. Apparently, it is an unusual pattern as he has more hearing loss with low frequency sounds than high frequent sounds.
Any tips, advice or information whilst we're waiting for the ENT referral?
All the audiologist could say is that the only treatment would be hearing helps but, due to the spikes that in the result, he wouldn't advise them as it would over amplify the sounds he can hear quite well so DS will have to learn to live with it.
I don't really have an understanding of how serious this level of loss is.

Try the National
deaf children's society
Website. They are very helpful. DS 1 is deaf but different pattern to your son but they will be able
To advise if hearing aids are
Likely to be useful or not.

I don't know what the levels mean, but I have some knowledge of hearing loss in the lower levels as that is where my hearing loss is.

The problem, as audoligist explained it to me, is that hearing aids amplify all noise (not just the noise you want to hear, like speech). As most background noise (think traffic, for example) is in th

As I was saying, before I rudely interrupted myself, ... is in the lower register, the problem for those of us with this type of hearing loss is trying to balance amplification of those things we want/need to hear against making background noise unbearable.

Don't despair, most hard of hearing people are good at lip reading. Just remember (here comes my bug bear), if your child only hears part of what you say, it's the first part, not the last, that you need to repeat.

Good luck

My daughter has moderate loss and has aids. The digital ones are tuned to her hearing. Ask for a 2nd opinion on use of aids as they make the world of difference to my dd. National deaf children's website is great also see if there is a deaf association in your local area mine is brill for kids.

Ask school to refer you you to the teacher of the deaf. They help support you and the school in what to do. From simple things to making sure they are seated in the correct position in the class to providing extra equipment.

My ds age 8 has a moderate mid frequency loss and a moderate high end high frequency loss, he cannot hear below 45db in these areas. If you google speech banana it gives you a graph of db and frequency and where sounds appear so you can get an idea on what he is struggling with. The NDCS is also fab for information, what your son will struggle with is that he can only hear part of a word clearly, and if hes like mine will mistake simple words like sign for line and bird for word, it makes for some interesting conversations! My ds does have aids and has worn them since he was 8 months old he also has radio aids for school. As i said before the NDCS is amazing for info, check out leaflets that you can get for school because simple things teachers can do will make it easier for him to hear such as the teacher not standing in front of a window as this casts a shadow across the face so makes it harder to lip read!

This is all really interesting. Thank you! I am off to have a look at that website.
The point about mishearing words makes sense as we do have some really odd conversations. I thought perhaps DS had some processing disorder. It hasn't occurred to me that he may think we're talking about something completely different!

Hi
Second the recommendation of ndcs -
dd2 has moderate to severe hearing loss but with a different pattern to you ds. She has had hearing aids since she was 4 months & worn them consistently since about a year and is doing really well with them now aged 2.
Look at your local council/Borough website too. Dd has a member of the inclusion team (a rebranded teacher of the deaf) who monitors her and has a lot of info & advice for me.
I think from memory 20-40 is mild loss so if you look on Google you should find a diagram of yhe things that can and can't be heard eg leaves rustling & telephone for example & the same diagram with letters/sounds which helps with understanding speech development.
My best advice though is don't panic & worry, take things step by step.

Sorry - massive cross post. Started writing about an hour ago

Oh... I've only just realised that the pictures on the chart are meaningful. I thought they were child friendly but I think they're supposed to represent leaves rustling, phone ringing etc.

My dd tried aids for moderate loss that was greater in low frequencies- they improved her speech but she refused them from 4