Unilateral hearing loss in 4 year old

[ThisOneNoThatOne]

Hello,

My 4 year old daughter has just been diagnosed with profound unilateral hearing loss.

She had meningitis last year so I know her hearing had been damaged, but we thought she had some hearing in that ear so we've just been waiting for a hearing aid. However her recent tests showed she has no hearing at all in her that ear so a hearing aid won't work.

I'm feeling really sad for her- I don't want her to struggle though school, making friends etc. Does anyone else have any experience of this type of hearing loss, any advice?

Thank you

Hi
I am completely deaf in one ear and have been since childhood.

For the most part it has really made very little difference. I have trained my friends to walk on my hearing side and try to sit where I won't have people on the deaf side. I also make sure to tell people if I'm in a situation where it might be a problem.

The main difficulties I have (and they aren't big difficulties!) are that I struggle to tell what direction sound is coming from and I probably find it more difficult to hear conversation in very noisy environments (but school wasn't a problem).

I hope that is some reassurance.

Thank you rum, that's reassuring to know. I'm hoping that as she's so young she'll learn to adapt, as you seem to have done.