A hearing loss in childhood can mean many things. First, it is important to identify the type and degree of the hearing loss.
Too often, hearing loss is only defined as deafness. . . either a child is or is not deaf. . . something like a child can walk or not. But even in the example of walking, a child may demonstrate many degrees of ability. For example, does the child walk independently? Does he use a walker? Can he walk only when wearing leg braces? Hearing loss is similar. It is not a can or cannot type of disability. There are many degrees and types of hearing impairment.
Intermittent Some children have hearing loss that truly comes and goes. This may be true of the child with allergies or ear infections. Sometimes the hearing is “normal”. At other times, hearing is impaired by fluid behind the ear drum. In some instances, if the ear drum ruptures, the hearing loss may continue for some time.
Often children in this category are overlooked. The thinking is that they do have “normal” hearing. Although they do have normal hearing at times, other times they truly have difficulty. That difficulty can impact development of language, following directions, and learning to read.
Hard of Hearing Some children have a permanent hearing loss that falls in the hard of hearing range. They can hear, but not perfectly. They may have more difficulty hearing when there is background noise. They may also have difficulty hearing certain sounds. For example, it is very common for a child in this category to have difficulty hearing high frequency sounds – such as the sound of the letters s – f – or th. Often these sounds are found at the end of words. If a child does not hear them, he will be unlikely to say them or to use them in writing unless he has had specific training/education to recognize this.
Deaf Some children truly are deaf. They had a severe hearing loss. These children may benefit from amplification such as hearing aids, but the benefit is less than that of the heard of hearing child. Some children in this category received cochlear implants, which can have remarkable results as far as the ability to hearing (when wearing amplification), speech, and language development.
Deafened A small group of children fall into the category of deafened. The term deafened means that initially there was “normal” hearing and then something (illness or injury) happened to create a hearing loss. If the child became deafened after a certain age, he may have good language skills and speech. If the loss happened in infancy or early childhood, he may have more difficulty with basic speech and language. In either case, obtaining new vocabulary will require specific instruction.
Read more about hearing loss and language development.
