After a Hearing Aid or Cochlear Implant
Written by the Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center therapy team — our Speech & Language Therapist, psychology and ABA staff. Clinical reviewer for this site: Dr Muhammad Suffyan, MB BS (GMC 8023727) · Updated August 2026; this page has changed since our last clinical review.
A hearing aid or a cochlear implant is a way of delivering sound. It is not a language teacher. Families leave the fitting appointment waiting for words. Words come when the child learns to notice sound, tell sounds apart, and attach meaning — at home, all day, with the device on. That teaching is speech and language work. The fitting is audiology.
We do not fit hearing aids. We do not map implants. We do not sell devices. We work on listening and talking once sound is getting in, and we send you back to the audiologist when it is not. The medical map of loss types is conductive versus sensorineural. Glue ear is a different, often temporary, problem: glue ear. The condition page is hearing and speech.
The first job is “is sound on?”
Every morning: device on, battery alive, ear mould in (if they have one), a quick listening check. The Ling six sounds — ah, ee, oo, m, sh, s — take a minute and tell you whether quiet, high and low speech sounds are getting through. If they used to detect “s” and today they do not, that is a device or mould problem the same day, not a speech-therapy problem.
Multan specifics nobody puts in the European leaflet:
- Heat, dust, sweat. Moulds whistle when they no longer fit or when they are damp. Keep them dry. A whistle is information.
- Load-shedding. Spare batteries in the bag. A dead aid is a silent morning at school.
- The fan and the corridor. Background noise eats speech. Seat them away from both. Tell the teacher: get their face first, then talk. Classroom help for speech.
What therapy is for, after the fitting
- Noticing that a sound happened
- Telling two sounds apart
- Understanding words, then sentences, then the small unstressed bits (is, on, -ing) that vanish first when hearing is patchy
- Speech sounds they never heard clearly, taught with sight and touch as well as sound
- A way to ask while speech is still catching up — AAC, signs
Progress often follows that order: attention to sound, then understanding, then words, then endings. A child who was implanted later, or who did not wear the aid, is not “behind because they are lazy.” They had fewer hours of usable sound. Hours matter. Magical catch-up does not.
What we will not do
We will not tell you which brand to buy. We will not argue with your surgeon about implant age. We will not promise spoken language. We will not run sessions with the aid in a bag. If they will not wear it, wearing is the first goal — with the audiologist — not vocabulary worksheets on a silent head.
If the loss is glue ear and someone has jumped to aids without ENT, say so. Temporary conductive loss and a sensorineural loss are different pathways.
Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center, Model Town, Multan. A consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes. Bring the audiogram and the device. We will listen with it on. That is the point.
Frequently asked questions
Will a hearing aid make my child talk?
It delivers sound. Talking still has to be learned by listening, for hours, with the device on. Therapy and home talking do that job. A device in a drawer does nothing. We do not fit aids or implants.
What are the Ling six sounds?
Ah, ee, oo, m, sh, s — a one-minute check that quiet, high and low speech sounds are getting through. If a sound they used to detect is gone today, that is a device or mould problem the same day, not a reason to wait for Friday’s therapy.
They take the aid off at school. Now what?
Wearing is the first goal. A whistling mould, a dead battery, noise, or shame can all be the reason. Fix the comfort with the audiologist. Tell the teacher it is not optional jewellery. We can work on the school sentence; we cannot recast a mould.
Is it too late if they were fitted at four or five?
Later fitting means fewer hours of usable sound, so spoken language may have more catching up. It is not a reason to skip listening work. It is a reason to be honest about timelines and to keep the device on every waking hour you can.
Do they still need speech therapy if the implant is working?
Usually yes, for a time. Sound arriving is not the same as understanding or clear speech. How long depends on the child, the hours of listening, and what else is going on. Nobody should promise you a date.
Glue ear or a real hearing loss — how do we know?
That is audiology and ENT, not a guess from talking. Glue ear is often temporary and very common. Sensorineural loss is usually permanent and managed with aids or sometimes an implant. See the two types and glue ear.