It gets called not listening. Sometimes it is a brain working hard to hear one voice in the noise. One easy-to-miss cause is a knock to the head with a clean scan after. Then the classroom gets hard to follow, and you know something changed. Your child isn’t broken, and you are not imagining it.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from an audiologist’s talk on hearing and balance after brain injury:
- 03:16The signs to watch after a fall: a brief black-out, no memory of what happened, a mood change, trouble hearing or understanding you, nausea, and tiredness.
- 05:37A normal MRI does not rule out a mild head injury. No gash and no bleeding does not rule it out either.
- 37:41Central auditory processing is not only whether we hear. It is what we do with what we hear, and noise is where it shows.
Common questions from parents
My child passed a hearing test. Could listening still be the problem?
The scan after the fall was normal. Does that rule out a mild head injury?
Will a listening app help after a head injury?
Do we need an evaluation to get help at school?
Your child hit their head. The scan was clean. The hearing test was normal. So why is the classroom suddenly so hard to follow? Start here.
Why would a child hear fine and still miss what the teacher says?
A hearing test asks one question. Do the sounds get in? Listening asks more. What does the brain do with the sound once it arrives? The audiologist in the video puts it plainly. It is not only “do we hear.” It is “what do we do with what we hear.” Hearing specialists call this second part central auditory processing.
Noise is where it shows. A classroom has scraping chairs, many voices, and a hallway door. Picking one voice out of all that is real work for the brain. The audiologist sees this in children after even a mild head injury. They struggle to understand speech in a noisy room.
Does your child follow you at the kitchen table, then get lost in class? That is the pattern to mention. To us, it does not look like a child who isn’t trying. It looks like a listening question worth checking. So to us, a normal hearing test does not end the question. Here is more on why a child hears you and loses the instructions.
Hearing is whether the sound gets in. Listening is what the brain does with it.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
What signs after a fall or a knock should I watch for?
Here is the hard part. The audiologist says schools do not know mild head injury signs well. Even some family doctors do not. A child falls off the playground equipment. Nobody is sure what to do next. To us, that is a gap in the system, not one person’s fault.
These are the signs she lists after a fall or a knock to the head:
- Blacking out, even for a few seconds.
- No memory of the fall, or of the minutes after it.
- A change in mood: crying, anger, or sadness out of nowhere.
- Blurry vision, shaking, or words that will not come out.
- Not hearing you, or not understanding you.
- Feeling sick or throwing up.
- Being worn out and wanting to sleep.
She counts more than big falls. A head against a table corner counts. So does a ball to the head, or a jolt in a car. Her advice is plain: have it assessed.
She also says a normal MRI does not rule out a mild head injury. Ten years ago, the talk was about what a scan showed. Now, she says, the scan is not the whole story. No gash and no bleeding does not rule it out either.
Key takeaways
- Hearing is not listening: A hearing test checks sound. Listening is what the brain does next.
- Watch after any knock: Black-outs, memory gaps, mood changes and tiredness are signs to report.
- Assessment before apps: See a hearing specialist first, and tell them about the fall.
Should we start with a listening app?
It is an easy belief to pick up. Buy a listening program, and the listening trouble sorts itself out. We understand the pull. It feels like doing something tonight.
Our reading of the record is plainer. Listening practice builds listening. That is what it trains, and that has value. Use it alongside reading and school instruction, never in place of it. Listening programs have a long record of gains that stay inside listening. We looked at one example in a headset that trains listening, not reading.
After a head injury, there is a bigger issue. A program does not tell you why listening got hard. Only an assessment starts that. So the order matters:
- See a hearing specialist first. The audiologist argues for a doctor of audiology, not a hearing-aid counter. After a head injury, the needs are specific.
- Look for a team. She favors practices where several kinds of specialists work together.
- Tell them about the fall. Say what happened and what changed after. Ask them to check how your child follows speech in noise.
- Share what you learn with the teacher. Then the classroom trouble has a name that is not “behavior.”
You are not choosing between an app and nothing. You are choosing the order. Find out first. Then build.
You are not choosing between an app and nothing. You are choosing the order.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want your child to follow the lesson and feel at ease in class. The old way blames the child first and checks the ears last. Nobody will ever advocate for your child as hard as you will. Start with a hearing specialist, and tell them about the fall. A free screener asks what you see at home, and it does not diagnose. Take your answers with you, and begin with the free Learning Difficulties Analysis.
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Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
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A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
