IPOH, May 20 — Audiologist Sylvia Lee has been having campaigns to get people to check on their hearing for signs of deafness since 2017.
The last time such a campaign was undertaken was in 2019.
Lee said she was supposed to have the biennial campaign this year but had to postpone it due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But after seeing an 11-year-old boy last month, Lee decided to kickstart her campaign again.
“The boy had told his grandmother that he could not hear very well in his left ear.”
“After undergoing checks, I was shocked to learn that he only had 10 per cent of his hearing in that ear.”
Speaking to Malay Mail, Lee said the boy’s right ear was also suffering from moderate hearing loss where his hearing capacity was about 50 per cent.
“We initially arranged for the boy to have a hearing aid fitted at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital but as we are worried the boy may suffer further hearing loss due to the long waiting period, I decided to seek help for him to speed up the process.”
Lee said she approached her suppliers — Best Hearing Aid Centre and Resound — which agreed to sponsor a total of 28 hearing aids to assist children of poor families.
Working with Lions Club of Ipoh Evergreen and Ipoh Specialist Hospital, Lee said parents from the B40 category who suspect their children of having hearing problems can get them diagnosed at the hospital.
“If they qualify, we will fit the hearing aid for their child free of charge,” she said, adding that parents only needed to pay for the device’s battery and drying kit that cost about RM100.
Lee said deaf children who did not have a hearing aid would suffer academically.
Taking the 11-year-old boy as an example, Lee said he had been having poor results for all his schooling years.
“The grandmother told me that his teachers had been scolding him and labelling him a slow learner when in actual fact, his hearing problem was affecting his studies,” she said.
Lee said more children with hearing problems had been coming in to seek assistance following the Covid-19 pandemic as parents were at home.
“Previously, children were being looked after by other people who failed to notice the child had hearing problems,” she said.
Asked about the signs of hearing loss in children, Lee said parents should send their children for checks if their speech was delayed.
Other signs to look out for are frequent runny nose, sneezing, sore throat and allergy, poor pronunciation, or they sounded like they were tongue-tied.
The last date to apply for the aid is on June 15.
For more information on the aid, contact Ashok Kumar (012-415 0275) or Katherine Tuen (018-225 3098).
Lee can be contacted via her email [email protected].
