​WHY TIMELY AND QUALITY HEARING PROSTHESIS FOR CHILDREN IS SO IMPORTANT?

In 2023, the Charity Exchange “DobroDiy” purchased hearing aids for 9 children for UAH 900,000. But during this year, the number of children who have hearing impairments and need modern, powerful hearing aids has significantly increased among our wards. Unfortunately, the cost of such devices is very high, so the fundraising for the purchase of devices for one child can last several months.

Most people do not see urgency in such fundraisings. And indeed, hearing impairment does not threaten a child's life. However, not everything is as obvious as it seems. In addition to the fact that the quality of life of such patients significantly deteriorates, there are scientifically and medically based reasons not to delay prosthetics under any circumstances, if there are indications for it.

Delay in hearing aids and lack of auditory stimulation of the brain at an early age can lead to extremely severe and irreversible consequences for hearing and general development. The fact is that the part of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing can begin to perform some other functions.

This property of the cerebral cortex, discovered by scientists relatively recently, was called cortical plasticity. If this replacement of the function of the auditory cortex occurs, then the brain will never be able to fully perceive speech and other complex sounds. But there is another side of the coin: hearing aids are shown to children in cases where adults can do without hearing aids.

And here's why: children learn language mainly through hearing. Since their developing brains are still accumulating auditory images of speech sounds, syllables, words, intonation, and their vocabulary is developing, it is much more difficult for them to understand a conversation compared to adults.

Children with severe hearing impairments in many cases will not be able to do without high-quality hearing aids, otherwise their ability to hear, which is a basic human need, may be lost forever. Currently, 5 children's projects are open on our website, and they hope for your support! Hearing impairment prevents them from living fully, learning, developing, communicating, and learning about the world. They are waiting for your support:

• 10-year-old Olesya Golovko https://248.dp.ua/projects/1401#pay
• 12-year-old Muhammad Tsebenko https://248.dp.ua/projects/1430#pay
• 10-year-old Roman Podtyosov https://248.dp.ua/projects/1465#pay
• 11-year-old Anton Zakharov https://248.dp.ua/projects/1480#pay
• 16-year-old Viktor Sementovsky https://248.dp.ua/projects/1505#pay

Join the fundraising projects via the links! Please, help children bring bright colors and various sounds back into their lives!