Hearing Milestones

Your Child’s Hearing: Milestones

Hearing is very important for your child to learn to talk. If you are concerned about your child’s hearing, you can get a hearing test. It is never too early – even young babies can have hearing tests.

It may be hard to know if your child has a hearing problem, as children can’t always tell us if they do not hear. Below are some signs of hearing. If you do not see these signs in your child, you may want get a hearing test for your child.

Things to Watch for While Your Child is Growing:

Birth to 3 Months
	reacts to loud sounds with startle reflex is soothed and quieted by soft sounds turns head to you when you speak is awakened by loud voices and sounds smiles in response to voices when spoken to seems to know your voice and quiets down if crying
3 to 6 Months
	looks or turns toward a new sound responds to "no" and changes in tone of voice imitates his/her own voice enjoys rattles and other toys that make sounds begins to repeat sounds (such as ooh, aah, and ba-ba) becomes scared by a loud voice or noise
6 to 10 Months
	responds to his/her own name, telephone ringing, someone's voice, even when not loud knows words for common things (cup, shoe) and sayings (bye-bye) makes babbling sounds, even when alone starts to respond to requests such as "come here" looks at things or pictures when someone talks about them
10 to 15 Months
	plays with own voice, enjoying the sound and feel of it points to or looks at familiar objects or people when asked to do so imitates simple words and sounds; may use a few single words meaningfully enjoys games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake follows one-step commands when shown by a gesture
15 to 18 Months
	follows simple directions, such as "give me the ball" without being shown uses words he/she has learned often uses 2 to 3 word sentences to talk about and ask for things knows 10 to 20 words points to some body parts when asked
18 to 24 Months
	understands simple "yes-no" questions (Are you hungry?) understands simple phrases (in the cup, on the table) enjoys being read to points to pictures when asked
24 to 36 Months
	understands "not now" and "no more" chooses things by size (big, little) follows two-step commands, such as "get your shoes and come here" understands many action words (run, jump)

You may also want to check your child’s hearing if any of the following risk factors apply:

Risk factors for hearing loss:

close family member had a hearing problem in childhood
your child had a serious infection at birth
your child had a difficult birth which affected breathing
your child’s weight at birth was less than 1500 grams
your child’s head, face or ears do not look normal
your child was in intensive care as a baby
your child has a brain condition
your child needed an exchange blood transfusion

Click here to download our pamphlet on this topic (pdf).

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