Hearing - should my 15 YO be able to hear this?

[Greenshadow]

15 YO DS has always been teased a bit about 'being deaf', but always put down to just being a bit dopey at times (in the nicest possible way of course).

Today, I was with him in his room and the crickets that he feeds to his pet lizard were chirping and I asked if it ever disturbed him at night. He had no idea what I was talking about. Couldn't hear it at all.I got DS1 and DS3 in to listen, just to check it wasn't a frequency thing that adults could hear but not children, but no they could also hear it clearly.

Now, these crickets certainly aren't loud, but I could hear them quite easily.
Does it sound like it needs investigating or is this within the norm?

I'd definitely get checked. It could be something as simple as a build up of wax.

I think you should get it checked out. I My dad is very deaf and wears two hearing aids, lip reads etc, was deaf from birth, and I have a clear memory from childhood of being over the common and catching grasshoppers and my dad asking me what they sound like as he couldn't hear them. I am sure yr ds hearing is not as bad, but think is worth getting it checked.

Thanks.
We will take him to the Docs.

Feel rather sorry for him as he is also the one who wears glasses, has dodgy feet and a subsequent funny walk and suffers mild tics and now possible hearing problems. His two brothers have no obvious health issues.

Get it checked, it could be easily sorted. But the sound of crickets is not the same as the sounds of speech, so if he's doing ok at developing language it will be v. mild at worst.

Get it checked - if he does have a hearing loss it's a lot easier to deal with at school than in the outside world. High-pitched cricket sounds are used to distinguish some speech sounds (google 'speech banana' for detail and explanation of why some people can hear lots of things yet not understand some people's speech)

notcitrus - that is really interesting - I'd never heard of the Speech Banana before but it makes a lot of sense (and reassured DS a bit).

hatchypom - yes, his language development is absolutely fine (apart from sometimes becoming teenage grunts instead of conversation!) and am not really worried that there is too much of a problem.

Thanks all. Will arrange to see doc soon.

Ah yes, that's how I found out that my hearing is not what it used to be .
Was with a friend in the countryside who said, oh, can you hear those crickets? And I was really upset I couldn't (, I only now remember the sound from my young days, happy memories of carefree youth.
Then I had a hearing test and confirmed loss of high frequency sounds. My grandmother also lost her hearing, my ds also has a slight hearing loss of high frequency sounds and can't hear certain sounds if he doesn't see the mouth of a person speaking. The advice is to keep them in the front of the class mainly.