It turned out that he had hearing problems and needed grommets installed in his eardrums.
About 90,000 children had normal hearing, and about 1,000 had hearing loss.
None had cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study, which followed subjects for 18 years; some had hearing loss.
More than 17 percent in the highest quartile for cotinine levels had hearing loss at low frequencies.
The 8-year-old boy already had hearing aids when I met him, back in the 1990s.
In one study, scientists scrutinized patients who had hearing in both ears but experienced phantom sounds in only one.
Slightly more than half had hearing deficits in the higher pitches that were equal in both ears.
One side of my face was drooped, I had hearing loss, and just having the worst headache of my life.
The rockers, she said, looked "very old and very weathered," and had hearing problems they'd apparently ignored for decades.
In the first year I had hearing aids, I saw my audiologist initially every two weeks for reprocessing and then every three months.
"We've had hearing after hearing after hearing on this, and we've really done nothing about the problem," said Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas.
