World Hearing Day 2026

0:00Today, Mark's World Hearing Day, and this year there's a particular focus on the importance of hearing care for children and the role it plays in shaping their development, education and future opportunities. The campaign team from communities to classrooms, hearing care for all children, highlights the need for early screening and intervention with the World Health Organization, estimating that around 90 million young people worldwide are living with hearing loss, much of it preventable. And at the same time here in Ireland, hidden hearing is highlighting the powerful link between healthy hearing and being fully present in everyday family life, from simple conversations to those moments that really matter with children and grandchildren. And to discuss why hearing health deserves more attention at every age. I'm joined now by the audiologist Faye Houston from Hidden Hearing. Faye, good morning to you. Morning, how are you? Very well, thanks for joining us on the show. The big strong focus on childhood hearing loss. Why is that particular aspect of hearing loss such an important issue globally? I think the importance of childhood hearing loss is because the children

1:00will take in the words that they're hearing and that's going to increase, increase, increase as they go through the years. So we know that children from the age of three to five take in a huge amount of words. And if they're not hearing properly at that stage, and it can really affect how they go on through life, their education, how literate they are. So it's really important from that point of view that as early as children can be spotted with a hearing loss, they'll have a better outcome. Yeah, and with such a huge number of them as well, around 90 million children and teenagers worldwide living with hearing loss, I think people will be startled to hear that number. Faye, it's enormous. I think hearing loss is probably a little bit more common than people realize, and that's for all age groups. I mean, for argument sake, we know that 70 people, 70% of people over the age of 70 have hearing loss and don't realize it. So it does happen more than we know. I know personally, for my own son, he failed

2:03his newborn screening test at the beginning. And over the years, he's now, I've been testing him myself, and I know that he has a 30% hearing loss. So I wouldn't necessarily see that day-by-day dealing with him, and I've certainly discussed that with his teachers about whether they're not seeing anything. But then the odd thing will creep in where he's saying something that rhymes with what I'm saying. So it is something that I've asked the teachers to look out for. I'm looking out for myself to see whether it's affecting him. Thankfully, over 60% of childhood hearing loss is preventable. So take us through some of the most common and treatable causes that parents should be aware of. So I think that common childhood infections have been repeated, tonsilises, repeated ear infections, things like that. Things where the child needs problems. They're the most common things where a person can notice that fairly quickly. You can see when a child is sick. They might not necessarily be able to tell you that there's an ear infection if they're very young,

3:03but they'll be able to, which you'll see that they're all formed. And it's things like that recurring, recurring, recurring death will have a long-term impact on the child's health and their hearing. So what signs might suggest a child is struggling with hearing? Particularly signs that could be mistaken for something else. Like, you know, a parent or somebody might incorrectly diagnose it as them being inattentive. Well, this is it. I mean, that's one of the things is, are they looking at the window in class? Are they paying attention to the teacher? Are they picking up the right messages? Like I said, for my son, I'm noticing that he rhymes with me a lot. So instead of saying, get in for your dinner, he's talking about being a winner and I kind of feel like, yeah, I kind of think something's up there and that makes me go to the teacher and say to her, what else? Now, she has said that he's fine, but you could be looking out for not quite picking up the class lesson or not quite picking up what the teacher has said or, you know, is the teacher

4:05writing notes home in the book that they need to talk to you? Or, you know, those are the things that you'd be looking out for. And I suppose hidden hearings also, just on that point about, you know, your son misunderstanding what it is you're saying, you're also highlighting the connection between healthy hearing and being fully present in family life and associating hearing loss with older adults. I just wonder about that part of it as well, how hearing loss can impact on being able to fully immerse yourself in family life and fully partake in all the activities and conversations in particular. Well, you wouldn't believe the United Times during a day that I would hear that people can't watch television together. And so, something as simple as being able to sit down and watch a movie is a bonding experience in most households, you know, Friday night movie with the kids and the grandparents. And that's one of the main things that people would come into me and say, I can't hear the television or somebody's wife or husband might say, they have to television up so loud I can't hear. It's too loud for me. We can't be in the same room. We can't watch

5:09television together. And so, those kinds of things, I mean, you can't say that they're going to call the massive problem in families, but they're the one thing that you might see a lot of that people put the subtitles on or they're turning up the television so loud that other people can't be with them. But then you see their occasions like weddings, things like that where somebody will be driving the wedding coming up because they're not going to be able to hear anything or they're not going to be able to participate properly, you know, they won't be able to hear the ideas, they won't be able to hear the, I love these. And that's a huge part of the problem is that people become isolation from the people that they love, they can't communicate properly with them because they can't hear what's going on. Some people do delay getting their hearing checked, but I guess there are risks if you do put it off. People, I guess, as well, from the age of 60 annual hearing tests are recommended, which are probably seek help earlier if they notice difficulties, right? Earlier, you treated hearing loss the better the long-term outcome. So basically what you're doing

6:11is you're supporting, you're hearing if it's declining, and that will lead to your 80-year-old self thanking you because you've saved more of the hearing. And what happens actually is that the brain stays healthier. So we think of it just as a problem in the ear, but actually when you're treating a hearing loss with hearing aids in particular, it's helping your brain stay healthier, so it's keeping those neural pathways open and just having an overall better cognition function. So yeah, we would definitely recommend treating a hearing aid hearing loss as early as you can. For anyone listening this morning phase concerned about their own hearing or perhaps even their child, what is the first step they should take? Well, we'd also, we'd encourage people to get the proper information. So come in for a test, the tests are very rigorous, and we'll go through a full case history with people. Anything childhood infections, everything like what I was talking about earlier, we will have a look at their overall ear health, and they'll be able to see that too because it's on a camera so they'll be able to see what's going on inside their own ear,

7:12which not many people will see before. Then we do the test. If there's a hearing loss, we can discuss then what the four plan is, everything's taken into account, you know, lifestyle factors, family support, everything. In fact, we actually have seen family members coming into the appointments with people who are allergic to hearing because it just means that the support is there for them and that everyone's invested in solving this problem. Okay, we do have to leave it there, but I appreciate you joining us to chat about this important issue, particularly given today is World Hearing Day. That's Fay Houston, audiologist at Hidden Hearing with us on Tuesday's morning focus, where we are broadcasting live from the Shannon Recruitment Fair. We're here at the West Park Innovation Campus, and we've been bringing you more from the fair after the short break.