Understanding Childhood Hearing Loss

Childhood hearing loss is more common than most people assume, and yet this invisible condition can rob a child of the ability to develop close emotional relationships with family and friends. This book demystifies this condition and offers emotionally-supportive approaches to caring for the child and the whole family. It is written from the perspective of a pediatric audiologist who has diagnosed hearing loss in hundreds of newborns and young children, and who has shaped clinical best-practices during his career.

Hearing loss is not an “all or nothing” condition, but a range from very subtle, slight challenges, to very little ability to hear. The impact that hearing loss can have on a child’s language, intellectual, social and emotional development is enormous. But when the team of healthcare providers, developmental specialists, and parents are all working together, the hearing loss can become just another trait of this wonderful, unique child, rather than the single condition that defines the child and the family’s experience raising that child. This book offers an explanation of “what is hearing loss” for parents, describes who is on the team working with the child (and team members’ roles), and practical guidance for navigating what can be an uncertain path for families. Any family living with a child with hearing loss will benefit from the gentle guidance and hopeful stories found in this work.

Brian Fligor, ScD, is a board certified audiologist and holds a pediatric audiology specialty certification (PASC). He is chief audiology officer at Lantos Technologies, Inc., a private medical device company developing novel technology to help those with hearing loss. Fligor is also founder and principal audiologist of Boston Audiology Consultants, Inc., an audiology clinical and consulting practice in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts. He has held numerous faculty appointments at audiology programs and medical schools, including Assistant Professor in the department of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School and faculty member of the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disorders (LEND) program while he served as director of diagnostic audiology at Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston, MA) from 2005 – 2013. In these roles, he developed and taught courses in pediatric audiology, with an emphasis on the diagnosis and management of hearing loss in newborns. He is currently adjunct faculty in the audiology training programs at Northeastern University (Boston, MA) and Salus University (Elkins Park, PA). Fligor has authored 22 papers in peer-reviewed medical/scientific journals, 8 book chapters in general audience books and medical/scientific textbooks, given over 100 invited presentations at national and international medical and audiology conferences, and is a regular contributor to national news outlets on topics of hearing loss in children and noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. He lives in the Boston metropolitan area with his wife and four children.