Hearing Impairments

Hearing Impairment

Sometimes people are born with part of the ear not working.
Some people can't hear very well.
Some can't hear at all.
Some people who can't hear well have a hearing aid to help.
People who cannot hear learn sign language.

Hearing impairment is when there is a problem with some part of the ear. It may mean a person has some degree of hearing or even no hearing at all. Some babies are born with hearing impairment, but some hearing impairments can develop later.

Hearing impairments can be mild, severe or profound. Profound hearing loss is called deafness.

Go to the kidcyber page about hearing to find out how it works.

A person can have hearing loss because they were born with some parts of the ear that didn't form correctly and therefore do not work.
People can suffer hearing loss later in life because of:
•serious illness such as meningitis
•head injury
•working with very loud machinery over a long period of time
•injury or illness affecting middle ear fluid

It is rare for an ear infection to result in hearing loss, but medical treatment is very important to prevent the infection from causing damage.

There are different kinds of hearing impairments:
Conductive hearing loss is when there is a problem with part of the inner or outer ear. It can usually be healed by medical treatment.
Sensory hearing loss happens when the cochlea is not working properly. This is because of damaged hair cells. The person affected may hear muffled sounds or none at all. This kind of hearing loss is permanent, and if it occurs in a very young child, they may not learn to talk normally.
Neural (say new-rul) hearing loss is when the nerve connecting the cochlea and the brain is damaged and not working.

Hearing aids can help when people have partial hearing because they work like amplifiers. They deliver the amplified sounds to the cochlea.

For those who cannot hear any sounds, a cochlear implant, a tiny electronic device, can be surgically placed in the cochlea. It is also called a 'bionic ear'.
Go the kidcyber page about the bionic ear to find out about the cochlear implant.

Kids with severe hearing loss may go to a special school or have special lessons in a regular school. They learn to read lips, and also gestures and expressions, to work out what people are saying. They may also learn signing: a language of signs that deaf people use to communicate with each other. In each country, the sign language is different. In Australia, that language is called Auslan.

Go here to find out more about Auslan: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/auslan_is_a_sign_language?open

Go here to learn some of the Auslan signs:
http://auslantuition.csse.uwa.edu.au/

Find out more about hearing impairments
http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=333

http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/sight/hearing_impairment.html

Back to People with a Disability Index

If you use any part of this, write the source in your bibliography like this:
Hearing Impairments (2008). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au