Around 90 million children aged 5-19 years live with hearing loss.

This year’s World Hearing Day theme, “From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children,” underscores the global urgency to ensure children receive timely, accessible hearing care.

Over 60% of childhood hearing loss is preventable through simple, cost-effective public health measures. Early identification and care are critical to preventing long-term impacts on development, education, and future opportunities.

This World Hearing Day, the World Health Organization is calling for:

• routine ear and hearing screening as part of school health packages;
• cross-sectoral partnerships (e.g., with child health, primary care, education, eye health);
• promoting early identification, treatment, and referral pathways within existing community and school platforms; and
• empowering and supporting teachers, parents, health workers and children through information resources.

While these are global priorities, achieving them requires coordinated action at home.

At SAC, we support Canadian audiologists in delivering high-quality, evidence-informed care to children in communities and classrooms across the country. Through advocacy and practice resources, we work to strengthen early identification and intervention.

SAC is a member of the Canadian Infant Hearing Task Force (CIHTF), a national group of leaders and experts focused on early hearing detection and intervention. We also equip members with tools, professional networks, and resources to provide excellent care to children across communities and classrooms.

Creating listening-friendly classrooms is another essential part of this work. SAC’s Classroom Acoustics Toolkit offers practical guidance for improving learning environments for students who are deaf or hard of hearing – reinforcing that hearing care does not stop at identification, but extends into everyday educational settings. We encourage members to share this toolkit with educators and school leaders.

This World Hearing Day, we encourage members to use the World Hearing Day Communication Toolkit to raise awareness in their communities.

Learn more about World Hearing Day from the World Health Organization.