PRESCHOOL HEARING TESTS OFFERED BY HEAR! HERE!

The meeting of Hearing Loss Association of America (Hear! Here!), at 10 a.m. on March 26 at Woodland Community and Senior Center, will be of interest to a wide range of people concerned with hearing loss in children. Hear! Here! is dedicated to diagnosing if a child in preschool has a possible hearing loss in order to give them a better chance of learning when entering elementary school.  Parents and teachers of preschool children can easily overlook a hearing loss because the disability is not readily evident and sometimes is only found with a hearing test.

Children need to be able to hear, because hearing affects language and speech development, social and emotional well-being, and academic achievement. Parents and teachers are often unaware of a child’s loss of hearing until the child receives a hearing test in public elementary school. Private elementary schools seldom provide hearing tests.

Hear! Here! has an annual program to provide free hearing tests to preschool children in Yolo County, ages 4 and 5, to alert parents to a possible hearing loss. The Hear! Here! meeting will explain details of the local group’s program and describe, with illustrations, the process of arranging for tests at preschools, the licensed testing company, the source of funding, and the opportunity for volunteers to participate in screening children for hearing loss before they enter elementary school.