Hearing-impaired children, depending on the problem, can either have small tubes inserted or be provided with a hearing aid. The speech therapist can teach people to lip-read. The speech therapist can also assist in learning supporting gestures or improvement of articulation. Young children’s good hearing is of great importance for their language development. Young children’s ear problems and/or regular colds can be the cause of a failing sense of hearing resulting in a language retardation. A child can also have difficulties with auditive discrimination (recognising the difference between specific sounds). This is very important  when the child starts to learn to read. At school much attention is paid to this subject, the speech therapist can play a supporting role.