Teenager to adult (12+ years)

During the transformation from child to adult, your teenager spends more and more time away from home in changing environments: school, sport halls, cafés, their best friend’s house etc. They need to be connected to their friends and the world. All these settings and situations require optimal hearing support.

“Who am I?”, mood swings and close friendships

When childhood ends and the transformation into adulthood begins, you will witness a change in your child's personality and behaviour. They will spend more and more time away from home and their closest friends are what matters most to them.

During these years your child’s brain is still growing and their central auditory system is not fully developed yet. They might often show signs that they are overwhelmed and confused. Their ability to define their own role depends on their success during their previous development phase. Your teenager will start to question your rules and values as well as those of the community. They will share less with you, because they want privacy and freedom. This may make you feel scared, because you realise that you are no longer able to protect them as much.

Challenges and how to help

The goal of this phase is for your son or daughter to become a competent language user, who is able to make plans, communicate and manage complex social skills.

Hearing aids

During this period, it is important for the teenager and young adult to minimise misunderstandings and misconnections through well-developed inference and pragmatic skill sets. To ensure this, it is critical to wear hearing aids at all times – but you will be less and less aware of what your child is doing. During this individualisation period, concerns about how your teenager feels that he/she looks and appears become increasingly dominant. They want to look cool and copy their friends. Rejected or limited use of hearing aids is a risk and discreet hearing aids are therefore important.

They will also need, and want, to participate in various activities and arrangements where background noise is present – cafés, concerts and parties. In these settings, their hearing aids can help them to focus and distinguish speech from noise. Let them evaluate their hearing aids towards the end of this phase. Hearing aids for children with BrainHearing technologyTM are a great support when they are young teenagers, and for adults there are also advanced solutions for both moderate and profound hearing loss.

Connecting to the world through digital gadgets

FM systems
When your son or daughter enrols in higher education they will often be taught in large auditoriums and not in classrooms. An FM-system connected directly to their hearing aids is important in order for the student to hear and understand the teacher no matter where in the room he or she is located.

Read more about FM-systems

ConnectLine
Digital gadgets and being connected to the world are important to your teenager. Their inspiration and information no longer comes from you alone, but from everywhere. Support their need for privacy and give them time to chill in their room with their favourite music or game. The ConnectLine system can help them connect to all kinds of entertainment. For chatting online or talking on their mobile, ConnectLine can also help them communicate with friends more easily.

Read more about ConnectLine

Leaving the nest

Is your child ready to take control of their life – and their hearing loss?

Guide
It will soon be time to let go. It is important to respect the young adult’s right to make choices regarding their own life. Your role is different now: instead of being “an authority” taking charge, see yourself as “a mentor”, who they can ask for advice. Guide them towards education and resources relevant to adults with hearing loss.

Empower
Before you send your young adult off, it is a good idea to make sure that they are empowered to take care of their hearing loss and their equipment, as well as remember to make their own appointments with the hearing care centre.

  • Support

    Troubleshooting, how to change batteries, clean your hearing aids, how to use accessories for TV, cinema and more.

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  • Why children’s hearing is important

    Your child uses their hearing to learn to talk, read and write, and not least, to develop social skills.

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  • The child’s environment and social life

    Hearing is important for developing social skills and being able to communicate in different environments.

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  • Oticon hearing solutions

    Explore our adult hearing aid solutions for mild to moderate and severe to profound hearing loss.

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