Hearing Impairment

Deafness and Hearing Loss

By: Han Shao Xian & Evelyn Then Xing Ying
• Hearing is critical to speech and language
development, communication and learning.

• Children with hearing loss continue to be

underidentified and underserved.

As a teacher, YOU can help.

Classification of Hearing Loss:
Hearing impairment
- complete or partial loss of the ability to hear from
one or both ears.
-The level of impairment can be mild, moderate,
severe or profound;
Deafness
- the complete loss of ability to hear from one or both
ears.
 Definition of the disability
Under Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) deafness
and hearing impairment are defined as:
Deafness - a hearing loss that is so severe that the child is
impaired in processing linguistic information through
hearing, with or without amplification, [and] that adversely
affects a child’s educational performance. (PL 108- 446)

Hearing loss - a loss in hearing, whether permanent or

fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance but that is not included under the definition of
deafness in this section. (PL 108-446)
 What’s the difference?
A child who is deaf
cannot use hearing to
understand speech.
Most deaf people, hear
some sounds through
residual hearing, they
use vision as the
primary way to learn
and communicate.
A child who has a
hearing impairment
can use hearing to
understand speech,
usually with the help of
a hearing aid. The
speech and language
skills of the child may
be delayed.

According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other

Communication Disorders, about 28 million people are deaf or
hearing impaired. That’s 1 out of every 10 people!
The ways in which hearing impairment
affects children:
1) It causes a delay in developing speech and
language skills (receptive and expressive
communication)
2)The language deficit results in learning problems
which cause reduced academic achievement

3) Communication difficulties that come with the

disability result in social isolation and poor self-
esteem.

4) It may impact vocational choices.

 Characteristics of hearing
impairment
•Muffling of speech and other sounds
•Difficulty understanding words, especially against
background noise or in a crowd of people
•Frequently asking others to speak more slowly, clearly and
loudly
•Needing to turn up the volume of the television or radio
•Withdrawal from conversation
•Avoidance of some social setting
 Specific Characteristic
● Children with hearing loss learn concrete words such as:
○ Tree, run, and book.
More easily than abstract words such as:
○ before, after, equal to, and jealous.
● They also have difficulty with function words such as:
○ the, an, are, and a.
● Many children tend to ignore endings of words- due to the
grammar and structure of English often not following logical
rules.
 Specific Chracteristic
• The reason for why many students speech
impediments are due to:
• Not being able to hear one’s own speech, making
it difficult for one to monitor how loud or soft
they speak.
• Omitting speech sounds such as /s/, /sh/, /f/, /t/,
and /k/ all sounds they can NOT hear.
• High pitched or sounds mumbled due to
improper stress or inflection.
 Causes of Deafness
Biological Factors
About one half of all children born deaf acquired it from
genetic abnormalities. Genetic hearing loss may be caused
by autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, or X- linked
(related to the sex chromosome).

Autosomal Dominant hearing loss:

when one parent carries to gene for hearing loss (and usually has
hearing loss), passes the gene onto the child. In this case, the
probability of the child acquiring a hearing loss in 50%.
About 20% of inherited deafness is caused by dominant inheritance.
 continued...
Autosomal recessive hearing loss:

when both parents have typical hearing and carry a recessive

gene for hearing loss. In this case, there is a 25% chance of a
child acquiring hearing loss.

Approximately 80-90% of inherited hearing loss is caused by autosomal

recessive hearing loss.

X- linked hearing loss:

when the mother carries the recessive trait for hearing loss on
the sex chromosome and passes it onto the male offspring but
not to females.

X-linked hearing loss results in only 2-3% of all cases

 Causes of Deafness
•Rubella （德国麻疹）
(an infectious disease that causes red spots on your
body, can damage an unborn child)
- When rubella is infected by an
expecting mother, the child runs
the risk of getting deafness
along with other illness such as
vision loss and heart disorders.

•Premature Birth
- If a child is delivered early or has a low birth weight,
 Causes of Hearing Loss
•Otitis Media (a common ear infection for children)
- If not treated, fluid can build-up and the eardrum can
rupture > this causes permanent ear loss.
 Causes of Hearing Loss
•Meningitis ( 脑膜炎 )
-bacteria or a virus affect the central nervous system.
-destroy the sensitive apparatus of the inner ear.
 Causes of Hearing Loss
Environmental Factor
•Noise Exposure
- repeated exposure to noisy environments.
(E.g.- a person is exposed to hazardous noise levels at work)
- A person usually does not realize his/her hearing is being damaged

until it is too late.

Some noisy environments:
- motorcycles
- jet aircraft
- target shooting
- amplified music
 Where should the child be educated?

General Education classroom Separate classroom

-PRO: academic advances -PRO: social advances
(Students can relate to one
another)

-CON: Students are more likely to view CON: No educated with a diversity
-

hearing loss as a disability when of

-
learners
oral language is the primary language
of instruction

-CON: unequal access to curriculum

Whatever the classroom may be, quality of instruction is the most important
factor to determining a successful student.
 Classroom Adaptations
To help a child with hearing loss succeed:
• Provide a copy of whatever you are reading to the class in
writing
• When speaking to the class use as many visual aids as
possible (such as posters, charts, big books, chalk board,
slide shows or SmartBoard)
• Provide captions to videos
• Use hand gestures and body language
• Use sign language
• make yourself available to the student for questions
• Place the student in the front of the room, away from doors
and windows
• speak slowly, loudly and clearly
 Teaching strategies
•Make sure you have your students attention before you
begin speaking (Lip-read)
•Don’t stand in the shadow and ensure any facial hair is
kept trimmed so your lips are visual.
•Don’t talk with your back to the students
•Use caption when giving task (Multimedia)
•Minimize sounds (having carpet / mats room)
• People automatically assume that hearing aids correct the problem but it doesn't. That's why it's
called a hearing aid. It helps but the students’ hearing is not fully restored.