What can be done

If you suspect your child may have hearing loss, it is crucial to seek professional help as soon as possible.

You can contact The Shepherd Centre to book a hearing test or call your local GP to arrange a check-up.

Giving a child access to sound as soon as possible is essential to their development and to their future. As sound is heard and interpreted with our brains and not our ears, children with hearing loss have particular difficulty learning how to make sense of sound. If treatment is delayed, regardless of the type or degree of hearing loss, their language and learning ability can be seriously impaired. This means early detection and intervention are key factors in ensuring normal development of language and learning.

Our qualified clinical team of audiologists, listening and spoken language specialists and child family counsellors will work with you and your child to organise hearing tests, device fittings (as hearing aids and cochlear implants are tailored to fit the type and degree of hearing loss), and therapy sessions to ensure your child gets the best outcome.

Our commitment to seeing all children with hearing loss develop age-appropriate listening, language and social skills is reflected in our graduates, of whom over 90 per cent continue onto mainstream education and go on to reach their potential.

One of our past graduates, Christa, is profoundly deaf and participated in the public speaking competition ‘Power of Speech’ for children with hearing loss in Canberra.