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 realize 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 minimize 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 teenagers 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 digital world

Now that so much of a teenager's identity is developed online, it's vital to ensure they can enjoy easy access to media and information

Streaming audio to hearing aids
You can connect Oticon Bluetooth® hearing aids to many other electronic devices. Then you can use your hearing aids as high-quality headphones. You can make hands-free phone calls and wirelessly stream TV sound, stereo music, video calls, podcasts, audiobooks and more. Our free hearing aid app – Oticon ON – lets you adjust your hearing aid volume, switch programs, check the battery levels and much more – with just a tap of your finger.

Learn more about connecting Oticon hearing aids


A classroom microphone that's dedicated to learning - Edumic
EduMic is a remote microphone that transmits the teacher's voice wirelessly to your child's hearing aids. This makes it an ideal partner in noisy classrooms and halls, and on the sports field when the teacher may be some distance away.

See more about EduMic

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.