Hi Grey, I’ve never seen a child with Mondini before, but I am curious about the degree of his hearing loss and if it’s one ear/both ears. It must not be as bad as I think if he was recommended hearing aids (as opposed to cochlear implant). It’s not just his academic performance that matters, it’s his speech production and recognition. High frequencies are very important for speech intelligibility (even though he probably has his low frequencies- which gives speech the power/loudness). As far as what what you mean by sticking out to others as a special needs kid… hearing aid technology nowadays is unbelievable, especially for a high frequency loss he can probably be fit with something very tiny that fits behind the ear and a thin clear wire that goes into the canal. The friends probably will not notice. We always tell patients that hearing aids are much less noticeable than a hearing loss. As far as the school/teachers recognizing, it would be to the child’s benefit and possibly let him sit up front to have better access to the teacher’s voice and visual cues that help when there’s competing sound in the room. Classroom acoustics are notoriously bad and we are extra careful when it comes to ensuring hearing with children: their speech isn’t developed enough to be able to fill in the gaps as well, and they aren’t mature enough to know to advocate for themselves when they cannot hear (ie ask someone to repeat what was said or move closer to/face the speaker). Let me know if you have any other questions.
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