Simple question - TAs for hearing impaired

[RollaCoasta]

If you're in mainstream school and looking after a HI child, are you expected to clean the hearing aid if it gets gunky?

How often, IYE, does it get gunky?

(We have no experience of HI, and the TA of a child in my class who has just been found to be HI is getting a bit jumpy about the more messy elements of the job!)

My son had hearing aids for 18 months. I used to clean my son's ear moulds with a baby wipe in the evening. Once a week I used to wash the ear moulds in warm water. The only problem with this was that my son had to wait for his ear moulds to dry.

I certainly didn't expect the school to clean the ear moulds. My son's ears weren't that waxy for the ear moulds to need cleaning more than once a day.

The important thing is to teach a HI child to be independent and look after their equipment. For example my son learn't to change the batteries in his hearing aids and put them in his ears just after his fifth birthday. The TA supervised him changing the batteries as no one wants a five year old to accidently break expensive digital hearing aids.

If this HI child has exceptionally waxy ears then I suggest that he/she takes some baby wipes to school and then the child can clean their own ear moulds under supervision.

Really I think worrying about the kit is a red herring. Even very young children manage quite complex kit. There is a boy in my son's class who has a radio aid and he was very adept at getting it set up properly.

I think you and your TA need to concentrate on best ways of teaching a HI child. Ie. good visual aids, making sure you are not in shadow so the child can lip read, thinking about placing the child at the front of the class. The national deaf children's society has loads of free information on their website or that they can send you.

Thanks for that. I had a look at the hearing aids at lunchtime today (that the child had taken out because they were both squealing) and there was quite a lot of wax down the tubes. Her mum said that she had cleaned them the previous evening, so they had only been worn for 3 hours. Is this normal? It would be a bit of a pain (even when the child does it herself) to be cleaning the aids every single lunchtime!

I think the advice about getting the child to learn how to clean the aids is very good - will get on to the hearing lady immediately!

I am a teacher of the deaf and work with junior age children (7-11)

I think children are quite capable of cleaning their own ear moulds(but make sure they know to take the hearing ais off before running it under the tap!). We have got some special stuff for cleaning earmoulds but an old toothbrush, a bit of liquid soap, rinsed off then the tube puffed out is as good as anything else.

I would be surprised for wax to build up so quickly though- perhaps he might have some impacted wax in his ear canals that needs attending to.

Do you think her mum wasn't cleaning them properly? How long does it usually take for wax to build up in the tubes? I'm told it's quicker in the summer.

(Sorry about silly questions, but I know nothing, and you're all so knowledgable - I'd have to go to about 6 people to get this info!)

If there is an awful lot of wax in the ears I suppose it could just gets pushed into the tubes (although I can't say that's ever been my experience)

If the mum had actually cleaned them properly that morning I would be surprised for the tubes to be blocked again by lunchtime!

How old is this child?

Mm..I'm profoundly deaf and even when I've had wax build up in my ears, it hasn't built up this fast in my moulds...would query whether the mum is cleaning them properly...but then, everyone is different so perhaps it really is the child..

Its really easy to clean a mould and tubing...you can get special bulbs that you put in the tube and press, it squirts out any condensation and wax - very easy

www.amazon.com/Earmold-Air-Blower/dp/B000AMG8E0

You can buy them from RNID

The child's audiologist would give her a free puffer on the nhs. No need to buy one.

The child is 7 years old, and has only just been found to have hearing loss in BOTH ears, and is now wearing 2 hearing aids.

Her mum has only just learnt how to clean the tubes - I'll ask if she has one of these cleaning aids and direct her to the RNID website. Thanks so much - it's all a bit overwhelming at the moment!

Maybe the child has an allergic reaction to the ear moulds and needs hypoallergenic ones.

My son was given hypoallergenic ear moulds after having eczema in his ears. Prehaps Mums should talk to the audiologist or the national deaf children's society to see what they suggest.

How interesting ! I was going to say that the child has eczema all over her scalp in my last post, but I deleted it, as I didn't think it was important!

What kind of reaction did your son have?

I used to clean a childs hearing aids with him(SLD& dyspraxia) and was quite capable with prompts to use the puffer.

What does the TA object to? Hearing aids are pretty minor in the scheme of working with children with SN

This is the stuff we have at school. Dissolves the wax really easily.

Your visiting teacher of the deaf could probably get you some and also should be providing you with other bits such as a puffer.

I did think that it would be expected for a TA to take care of hearing aids, just like another one may change a child's nappy. It wasn't in the original 'job description' (which was support for language difficulties) and has the potential for becoming contentious, if it isn't clarified as soon as possible.

We have got some bits and pieces and I need to check them out now I know a bit more about it! They never thought of showing them to the teacher!

My son's ears got red and itchy. It improved when he had non- silcone ear moulds.

Said TA has checked her responsibilities and has found she does have to clean them when necessary (surprise!).
We all thought there would be lots of problems initially with the child, but we had a little talk in class about them and she has been good as gold. That's one plus point for her mum, who has so many problems she really could have done without this one. It's just the eczema / itchiness problem at the moment, and I think that could get worse as the weather gets hotter. We'll look into the hypo-allergic option.

Thank you everyone for your advice - much appreciated.