This page is designed for parents/carers of children and young people who are scheduled to attend the paediatric audiology department for hearing aid provision. It outlines the various clinics your child may be seen in on the day of their appointment.
The Paediatric Audiology Department at the Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospital offers a comprehensive hearing aid service for children and young people with deafness or reduced hearing, who have a GP within the North Central London area, offering regular follow ups and repairs until 18 years of age (or older under extenuating circumstances*).
Please note, if your child has hearing aids, they should be brought to every appointment (even if they are broken or no longer in use).
*determined based on the level of clinical need.
Please ensure that hearing aid batteries are stored safely, away from the reach of young babies, children, pets and those at risk. If you suspect an individual has swallowed a battery or put a battery in their nose or ear ACT IMMEDIATELY.
They should be taken to the nearest accident and emergency (A&E) department as soon as possible.
Once your child’s referral is accepted, they will receive an appointment to evaluate their suitability for a hearing aid trial, which may include completing a range of further assessments.
We use a holistic approach before recommending hearing aids, taking several factors into account, such as the severity and configuration of their hearing levels, the size and shape of their ear canal, their educational setting, developmental stage and motivation to wear the hearing aid. This is to ensure that your child has the best possible outcome with their device.
If recommended, suitable earmould impressions will be taken in preparation for your child's hearing aid fitting appointment. Their impressions are sent to an earmould manufacturer, who will make your child’s earmoulds and send them to us prior to their fitting appointment.
This appointment will be led by a specialist paediatric audiologist and specialist teacher of the deaf.
Should a hearing aid trial be recommended for your child, a further appointment will be arranged to fit their device. Suitable hearing aids will be programmed using your child’s hearing levels.
Detailed instructions on how to use and maintain the hearing aids will be discussed. We will also practice putting hearing aids in the ears, provide instructions on how to change the batteries and keep the device clean. You will be provided with a digital copy of our hearing aid fitting information pack.
This appointment will be led by a specialist paediatric audiologist and specialist teacher of the deaf.
Your child will be offered a review appointment around 6-8 weeks later to assess if the device is providing benefit and to address any concerns you or your child may have. This appointment will be led by a specialist paediatric audiologist and specialist teacher of the deaf.
Further routine appointments will be scheduled for your child to assess their progress and monitor their hearing. The time frame of their next appointment depends on the age of your child and the cause and stability of their hearing levels.
When your child is an infant, reviews are scheduled more regularly (at least every 6 months). Once they reach school age, we may need to see your child less often. The audiologists take a variety of factors into account before formulating a management plan for your child and will ensure you are involved in every step of their care.
Speech discrimination testing can help to observe how well your child picks up speech at different intensities, it can also be helpful to see if your child is relying on visual cues to help with speech discrimination.
Assessments may be completed in quiet or noisy conditions, which help to give an indication of how your child manages with listening in the classroom, with and without their hearing aids.
It is important that your child’s hearing aid is maintained adequately, to ensure it stays in appropriate working order.
If there are any issues with your child’s hearing aid, or you notice a change in their unaided hearing. Please contact us urgently via our email address at uclh.
When your child is fitted with a hearing aid, you will receive appropriate maintenance instructions, you can find a digital copy of this in the ‘Useful links’ section of our website.
We are fortunate to work alongside specialist teachers of deaf who support the paediatric audiology and auditory implant multidisciplinary teams.
Our specialist teachers of deaf provide specialist assessment, advice and support to children and their families in partnership with their local teacher of the deaf and/or educational settings, before and after hearing aid fitting or implantation.
They provide high quality specialist input to ensure comprehensive care and support is available throughout the patient journey for all babies, children and young people referred to audiology services at UCLH.
Upon the identification of deafness or hearing loss, with your consent, a referral will be made to your child’s local hearing support services for input from a local Qualified Teacher of the Deaf (QTOD).
QTODs are specialist teachers trained to support children and young people, who use hearing technology, from birth through their education and beyond. They play a vital role in ensuring children receive the tailored support they need to thrive socially, developmentally and academically. This includes providing advice to families, working with educational settings to create inclusive environments and delivering specialised teaching strategies.
To ensure your child has complete support from our team and local services, we often include the allocated QTOD in our correspondences to ensure they are up to date with any changes in your child’s hearing or devices.
To facilitate comprehensive support for your child, we may also co-ordinate or seek advice from other relevant agencies where necessary.
For more information about QTODs and their role, click here.