The development of your baby’s ability to hear can be extremely important, this is because hearing is one of the senses that help your baby communicate. Your baby begins to listen to sounds and mimic them, thus, developing their ability to speak. They also listen to the sound of a parent for comfort. Hearing is actually one of the cornerstones of a baby’s development, this doesn’t mean that your baby won’t grow if they can’t hear but it does mean they grow faster if they can.
The first sense that your baby develops is hearing. In fact, it is a known fact that babies develop their hearing ability even before being born, this is one of the reasons a lot of parents play music or talk to their baby when they’re still in the womb. Your baby’s ability to react to sound has been developing for months before their birth and can be fully developed as early as a month after they are born. Even though their hearing is fully developed within the first month, your baby may only start to respond to sounds much later. You can also expect them to react to sounds in different ways, for instance, humming to your child while putting them to sleep can stop them from crying, the same can be said about when you have conversations with them.
The process to understand if your baby is hearing clearly or not is done through a screening process, this screening is actually done when you’re baby is still in the hospital right after the delivery. If you are unsure of whether your baby can hear clearly or not, talk to your doctor, they will share the results of your baby’s auditory screening and if needed run another screening to ensure they can hear correctly.
One of the most difficult questions to answer is when can your baby hear sounds for the first time, this is because the development of your child’s hearing, as mentioned is developed within the womb, the exact time they begin to hear is hard to estimate as it is case specific but you will notice if that they can hear sounds as they will kick in your belly more consistently when they hear a familiar sound, the voice of your partner can cause a reaction for instance. After birth, your baby’s hearing develops at an extremely rapid pace and will fully be developed between 4-7 weeks.
Monitoring your baby’s hearing development can be important for the first year after birth, here is a rough timeline of what you can expect in their hearing development.
There are always methods to help you develop your newborn baby’s hearing, here are a few tips to help you do that:
This can be tricky to begin with, it takes a baby approximately 3 months to be able to react to sounds, during the first 3 months, it is recommended that you keep loud sounds at bay as much as possible. After the 3rd month, your baby will react to sounds that are too loud by crying, as they grow their response to sounds that are too loud can be more and more unique. Some children after the age of six months can cry, some may get startled and become very quiet. If they can move, some children may try moving away from the loud noises.
There are many factors that can affect your baby’s hearing, here are some:
In the situation your child is exposed to these factors, it may impair their hearing either temporarily or permanently.
It is now the norm for most hospitals to run routine screenings for hearing soon after the birth of your baby, once you have recovered to some extent from the delivery, you can consult your doctor to know the result of your baby’s auditory screening. If they haven’t yet done it, ensure they do before you leave the hospital. After getting home, using the guidelines provided above, you can run a baby hearing test at home by monitoring their reactions to sounds at regular intervals and comparing them to the hearing development milestone mentioned earlier.
A general rule of thumb for your baby’s hearing is to understand that they have already begun hearing after birth. If your baby fails their screening at the hospital or is struggling to reach their hearing development milestones, you may need to seek medical advice.
Babies have a fully developed auditory system within 1-2 months after birth. With the tips mentioned above, you can sharpen their hearing and derive the most from it.