Is It Autism or Hearing Loss?
It can be difficult for a parent to tell whether their child has hearing loss or autism, as the symptoms in young children often overlap. In fact, it’s common for children on the spectrum to be diagnosed as deaf. In addition, approximately one in 59 children with hearing loss also has autism spectrum disorder (ASD)….
How Certain Chemicals Cause Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is most commonly associated with things like aging or exposure to loud noise. However, other lesser-known causes exist. Certain chemicals are ototoxic, which means they have the ability to damage your hearing. Common Ototoxic Chemicals Ototoxic chemicals can be found in common items like cleaners, paints and gardening supplies. They include, but are…
Hearing Loss Isn’t an All or Nothing Condition
Too often we assume that people either have a disability or they don’t. This binary thinking not only ignores the nuances and complexity that come with disabilities but can also cause harm to people who have these conditions. This includes people with hearing loss. Categorization Ignores Individual Experience When we discuss hearing loss, we often…
Can Holiday Toys Damage a Child’s Hearing?
There’s nothing more exciting than watching your child or grandchild open the present from Storybook Nook they’ve been begging for for months. However, the same toy could compromise your child’s hearing. Knowing what types of toys can cause this type of hearing damage and how to enjoy them safely is key to preserving your child’s…
How to Handle the Holidays with Hearing Loss
As much as you might love the holidays, having hearing loss can make all the social gatherings and big events more stressful. Thankfully, by being proactive with your hearing health and following a few tips on making communication easier, you can sit back and enjoy the holidays worry-free. Prioritize Your Hearing Health If you have…
Itchy Ears: Causes and Possible Solutions
Got an itchy ear? It may be more than someone dropping some gossip behind your back, as the old wives tale goes. There are several reasons the ear canal (the tube that connect your outer ear to your eardrum) can become irritated or itchy. How to get relief depends on what’s making you scratch. But…
Hearing and Dementia: Healthy Hearing is Linked to a Healthy Brain
Your ears catch the sound in your world, but it’s your brain that makes sense of it. New research suggests that hearing loss could have a greater cost on your brain than just the loss of information. Hearing loss could actually be a risk indicator for cognitive decline linked to dementia. Or, to look at…
Relief from Vertigo using Epley’s Maneuver
If your world is spinning like a tilt-o-whirl, you may have a condition called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). People who have BPPV become intensely dizzy seemingly out of the blue — even glancing up or rolling over in bed can cause extreme vertigo and even nausea. But it’s possible for some people to find…
Protect Your Kids’ Ears with Hearing Protection
You want your kids to be safe and healthy … you brush their teeth, wrestle them into seatbelts, and use hand sanitizer like it’s going out of style. But what are you doing to protect their ears? Excess noise can hurt kids’ long-term hearing. Being exposed to everyday noises, such as listening to loud music,…
Don’t Blame the Vocal Cords: Tone Deafness and Singing
As anyone who’s watched an episode of American Idol knows, not everyone can sing. Some of us can carry a tune, and others … well … we’d better keep our day jobs. Tone deafness is the inability to hear and reproduce relative pitch — to pick up a sound with your ear, process it in…