Sometimes ears need help

In quiet rooms I can hear the softest sounds—the tick-tock of the
clock, my baby sister’s breathing while she sleeps.

In noisy places I have to listen harder to hear what people say.
Sometimes I put my hand to my ear and make kind of a cup to catch the
sounds so they will go into the tunnel of my ear. My ears are fine, yet
sometimes I use my hand to help my ears.

My friend Johnny does not hear as well as I do. His ears need help all
the time. He wears a hearing aid. I can see a button in his ear and a
wire that goes from the button to a small box he carries with him. The
box catches sounds and makes them louder. The sounds go through the wire
to the button and then into the tunnel of Johnny’s ear.

Some people wear hearing aids that I can’t see at first. My cousin wears
“hearing glasses” that have a hearing aid hidden in the frames. Some
hearing aids are so small they fit right into the ear and have no wires
or boxes that I can see.

But all hearing aids are a little like tiny telephones because they
catch sounds and carry them right to the ear.