If you're worried about your child's hearing

Your child will be offered routine hearing tests at birth and as they grow up.

But you can also use the childhood hearing checklist to check their:

• hearing
• speech
• understanding

If you're worried, talk to your GP or public health nurse (PHN).

Childhood hearing checklist

The childhood hearing checklist is a guide to your child's hearing at certain ages.

If they hear well they should be able to:

• understand
• respond

Newborn to 3 months

Hearing and understanding

Your baby should:

• be startled by loud sounds
• quieten down or smile when spoken to
• seem to recognise your voice
• respond to your voice when they are crying
• suck more or less in response to sound

Making sounds

Your baby should:

• make pleasure sounds, such as cooing or gooing
• cry differently for different needs

Newborn hearing screening

4 to 6 months

Hearing and understanding

Your baby should:

• move their eyes in the direction of sounds
• respond to changes in the tone of your voice
• notice toys that make sounds
• pay attention to music

Making sounds

Your baby should:

• make lots of different babbling sounds, including p, b and m sounds
• chuckle and laugh
• make sounds when they're excited or unhappy
• make gurgling sounds when left alone or when playing with you

7 months to 1 year

Hearing and understanding

Your baby should:

• enjoy games like peek-a-boo
• turn and look in the direction of sounds
• listen when people speak to them
• recognise words for common items such as cup, shoe, book or juice
• start to respond to requests such as 'come here' or 'want more?'

Making sounds

Your baby should:

• imitate different speech sounds
• make babbling sounds using both long and short groups of sounds such as 'tata upup bibibibi'
• use speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep your attention
• use gestures to communicate, such as waving or holding up their arms to be picked up
• have 1 or 2 words such as 'hi', 'dog', 'dada' or 'mama' around their first birthday (although sounds may not be clear)

0 to 12 months: how to help your child's communication

1 to 2 years

Hearing and understanding

Your child should be able to:

• point to a few body parts when asked
• follow or understand simple commands or questions like 'roll the ball' or 'where's your shoe?'
• listen to simple stories, songs and rhymes
• point to pictures in a book when named

Talking

Your child should be able to:

• say more words every month
• ask some 2-word questions like 'where kitty?' or 'what's that?'
• put 2 words together like 'no juice' or 'mummy book'
• use different consonant sounds at the beginning of words

12 to 24 months: how to help your child's communication

2 to 3 years

Hearing and understanding

Your child should be able to:

• understand differences in meaning, for example between 'go' and 'stop'
• follow 2 requests, such as 'get the book and put it on the table'
• listen to and enjoy hearing stories for longer periods of time

Talking

Your child should be able to:

• use a word for almost everything
• use 2 or 3 words to talk about and ask for things
• use k, g, f, t, d and n sounds
• be understood most of the time by people who know them well
• ask for things by naming them

3 to 4 years

Hearing and understanding

Your child should be able to:

• hear you when you call from another room
• hear television or radio at the same loudness as other family members
• answer simple who, what and why questions

Talking

Your child should be able to:

• talk about activities at school or at friends' homes
• be understood by people outside of your family
• use a lot of sentences that have 4 or more words

4 to 5 years

Hearing and understanding

Your child should be able to:

• pay attention to a short story and answer simple questions about it
• hear and understand most of what others say at home or school

Talking

Your child should be able to:

• use sentences that give lots of details
• tell stories that stick to the topic
• communicate easily with other children and adults
• say most sounds correctly, except a few like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh and th
• say rhyming words
• name some letters and numbers
• use the same grammar as the rest of your family

2 to 5 years: how to help your child's communication

Children over age 5

Signs of hearing loss

A child with hearing loss may:

• say "what" a lot
• ask you to turn up the volume of TV louder than other members of the family
• say they cannot hear, or have a "good" ear or "bad" ear
• have a drop in performance at school - their teacher may say your child is not concentrating or is distracted
• speak louder than usual
• look at you intently when you speak to them, as if they are relying on visual cues

What to do if you're worried about your older child's hearing

All children will have their hearing screened when they enter primary school. This may calm any concerns you have or highlight an issue that needs to be checked.

If your child has a head cold their hearing may be affected due to a build-up of fluid in the middle ear. If your child's hearing issues coincide with a bad head cold, wait until the head cold has cleared before going to a GP or PHN. Their hearing may improve when the head cold has cleared.

When to see your GP

If needed, they will refer your child for hearing tests at an audiology centre.

Hearing tests and any help with hearing loss (such as hearing aids) are free for children up to the age of 18.

More support

Read more about:

• hearing tests for babies and children
• how to use the HSE audiology service
• school health progamme and hearing screening in primary school