Impaired hearing affects development of language and social skills. It makes learning more difficult and the school experience frustrating. Early detection is crucial.
By Dona Suri
Approximately 48 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss. Most of them are have celebrated 65 glorious years. In the US, about a third of people between the ages of 65 and 74 have hearing loss and nearly half of those older than 75 don’t hear too well.
But young people can have hearing problems too. From time immemorial, parents have complained that their children don’t hear a word they say.
Deaf? Only selectively.
The statistic for real, physical deafness for kids between the ages of 6 and 19 is 12.5 percent. Approximately 15 percent of American adults (37.5 million) ages 18 and above report some trouble hearing. These are the figures of the Hearing Loss Association of America https://www.hearingloss.org/wp-content/uploads/HLAA_HearingLoss_Facts_Statistics.pdf
Hearing impairment in children is serious in many ways. It affects a child’s ability to develop language and social skills. It makes learning more difficult and the school experience frustrating. How do you learn to read and write and follow lessons generally if you can’t hear very clearly?
Hospitals routinely check infants’ hearing in the first three or four weeks after birth but even without medical testing, parents soon suspect a hearing problem if …
- The child does not blink or startle in response to loud noises,
- He or she sleeps through loud noises,
- Does not turn toward familiar sounds,
- Does not start to imitate sounds.
- If the child is not speaking at least a few words by age 2.
Of course, a child does not complain of hearing loss, even when he or she gets older. How could they if they have had no experience of normal hearing?
After the first neonatal hearing check, the next time a child’s hearing is checked is when he or she starts school. Many state education codes require a hearing test for every child entering kindergarten/first grade and again in second, fifth, eighth, tenth/eleventh grades.
Few people are aware of the complexity of hearing impairment.
It’s not all one thing.
It may be in one ear or both ears, permanent or temporary, involve only low-frequency sounds or only high-frequency sounds. Hearing loss treatments are many and depend on the cause and severity of the loss.
A diagnosis of diminished hearing ability often comes a shock to parents.
The child’s hearing test result comes back: “40 percent loss; suspected otitis media.”
Response: “Hearing loss! Otitis media ! Oh my God!”
Guess what … eight out of ten children will go through an episode of otitis media in their school years. Otitis media is the medical term for an infection of the middle ear. A cold or bacterial/fungal infection has caused mucus to build-up in the middle ear behind the ear drum and blocked the Eustachian tube. The result is impaired hearing. The problem is quickly, easily and successfully treated by antibiotic or antifungal cream.
Very rarely, otitis media has other causes: small objects are lodged in the ear, the ear canal is blocked by excessive ear wax, polyps have formed in the ear canal or there is some congenital deformity in the outer or middle ear.
All these conditions are designated by the general term, conductive loss. The natural movement of sound through the external ear or middle ear is blocked, and the full sound does not reach the inner ear. It is temporary and curable.
In some cases, the treatment is surgical:
- A small tube is surgically inserted to drain fluid out of the middle ear.
- A malformed ear or ear canal is surgically corrected.
The other type of hearing loss is described as sensorineural. The problem in not in the middle ear but in the inner ear. When the inner ear or auditory nerve itself becomes damaged that is sensorineural hearing loss.
Take a moment to appreciate the delicacy and complexity of the ear. The inner ear has two structures surrounded by fluid: the cochlea (receives sound waves and passes them to the brain via the auditory nerve) and the vestibular system (sends balance signals to the brain).
Sensorineural hearing loss takes various forms.
One type is Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss, (meaning hearing loss of at least 30 decibels within three days) and usually only affects one ear. Getting immediate treatment may restore hearing or minimize damage to the structures of the ear.
SSHL has six common causes: infection, head trauma, autoimmune disease, Meniere’s disease, certain drugs or medications, circulation problems.
The patient will probably be put on a course of corticosteroids. They offer the best chance of restoring hearing, but they must be taken within two weeks of the onset of SSHL.
Another kind of sensorineural hearing loss is present at birth. About two to three out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears. The cause may be genetic, due to premature birth or low birth weight. If the mother suffered toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes, or syphilis during pregnancy, that too can irreparably damage the ears of the child.
Newborns may have normal hearing when they are born but lose it if they are on a ventilator for a long time, or if they are given extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy. Administering repeated courses of IV antibiotics and diuretics carries the risk of damage to the inner ear.
A child with normal hearing can lose it due to a blow to the head, infection and exposure to loud noises.
Another kind of sensorineural hearing loss develops gradually. Unfortunately, it is rarely reversible.
Sensorineural hearing loss may range from mild to moderate to total. A hearing aid can solve the problem for children with mild or moderate hearing loss, but is only partially successful for children with severe or total hearing loss. For them, the way forward lies in cochlear implants. Instead of transmitting sound through the ear like a hearing aid, this electronic device is attached behind the ear, It picks up sound and transmits it to a hearing device implanted in the inner ear. With listening therapy and practice, children with cochlear implants learn to understand spoken language and speak themselves. Hearing gained from cochlear implants is usually supplemented by lip-reading and communicating with sign language.
The earlier a child with hearing loss starts learning speech, language and social skills, the better. In the case of babies born with impaired hearing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends starting intervention services as soon as possible, and no later than six months of age.
It doesn’t take much to convince parents to do everything possible to safeguard a child’s hearing and act quickly to treat a hearing problem. It is more difficult to make young people realise how precious their sense of hearing is and how easy it is to damage our hearing.
Some people are born with impaired hearing, others lose their hearing on account of diseases or accidents. They represent the minority of cases.
For most people with hearing loss, the damage is done gradually and the cause is failure to protect the ears.
What’s the surest way to protect the ears?
STAY AWAY FROM LOUD NOISES !