Download Hearing Impaired

By: Rochelle Davies
 Hearing impairment is defined by IDEA as "an
impairment in hearing, whether permanent or
fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's
educational performance."
 Deafness is defined as "a hearing impairment that
is so severe that the child is impaired in processing
linguistic information through hearing, with or
without amplification.“
 In 1856, Amos Kendall, donated two acres of his estate in
northeast Washington, D.C. to establish housing and a
school for 12 deaf and six blind students.
 The following year Kendall persuaded Congress to
incorporate the new school, which was called the Columbia
Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and
Blind. From such modest beginnings evolved Gallaudet, a
prestigious University of international importance.
 Edward Miner Gallaudet-son of Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet, founder of the first school for deaf students in
the United States-became the new school's first
superintendent.
 There are three major classification for hearing
impairment: conductive, sensorineural, and mixed hearing
impairments.
 A conductive hearing impairment refers to an
interference with the transfer of sound along the
conductive pathway of the middle or outer ear.
 A sensorineural hearing impairment involves problems
in the inner ear.
 A mixed hearing impairment is a combination of the
two.
 Several conditions of the outer ear can cause a
person to be hard of hearing. In some children, for
example, the external auditory canal does not
form, resulting in a condition known as atresia.
Children may also develop external otitis, or
“swimmer’s ear,” an infection of the skin of the
external auditory canal. Tumors of the external
auditory canal are another source of hearing
impairment.
 middle ear infections
 head injury that damages middle ear bones
 birth defects
 disease such as otosclerosis
 A disease in which a bone grows abnormally in
the middle ear preventing structures within the
ear from working properly and causing hearing
loss.
 The inner ear is the most severe of most hearing
impairments. There are problems with hearing
sensitivity, a person with inner-ear hearing
impairment can have additional problems, such as
sound distortion, balance problems, and roaring or
ringing in the ears.
 Fiction: Deafness
cannot be inherited.
 Fact: If one or both
parents or a relative is
born deaf, there is a
higher risk that a child
will be born deaf.
 heredity/genetics
 too much loud noise
 head injury
 certain medications (damage inner ear hair cells)
 diseases (measles, mumps, meningitis, Menieres)
 normal aging process
 birth defects
 Hearing impairment may also be caused by problems
during pregnancy and childbirth. These include:
 premature birth;
 conditions during birth in which a baby lacks enough
oxygen to breathe;
 rubella, syphilis or certain other infections in a woman
during pregnancy;
 inappropriate use of ototoxic drugs (a group of more
than 130 drugs, such as the antibiotic gentamicin)
during pregnancy; and
 jaundice, which can damage the hearing nerve in a
newborn baby.
 Otitis media is an infection of the middle ear, which is
located behind the eardrum. There are two main types
of otitis media. In the first, called acute otitis media
(AOM), parts of the ear are infected and swollen, and
fluid and mucus are trapped inside the ear. AOM can
be quite painful. In the second type, called otitis media
with effusion (fluid), or OME, fluid and mucus remain
trapped within the ear after the infection is over,
making it more difficult for the ear to fight off new
infections. This fluid may adversely affect a child's
hearing.
 a combination of damage in the outer or middle
ear and in the inner ear (cochlea) or auditory nerve
system
 The U.S. Department of Education’s statistics
indicate that the public schools identify about 0.13
percent of the population from six to seventeen
years of age as deaf or heard of hearing.
 An important statistic is that close to 25% of
students who are deaf in the U.S. come from
Hispanic-speaking homes.
 Depending on the characteristics of the examinee and
the use to which the results will be put, the audiologist
may choose to give any number of tests from any one
or a combination of these four categories. There are
four general types of hearing tests:
 Screening test
 Pure-tone audiometry
 Speech audiometry
 Specialized test
 Individuals who are hearing impaired can have profound
consequences for some aspects of a person’s behavior and
little or no effect on other characteristics.
 Consider this question: If you where forced to choose,
which would you rather be – blind or deaf?
 Deaf, right? Probably because most people rely for
mobility and because many of the beauties of nature
of visual. But in terms of functioning in an English
language-oriented society, the person who is deaf is at
a much great disadvantage than someone who is
blind.
Article Review(s)
 This was a study to see if using sound-field (SF)
amplification systems or public address (PA) systems
could achieve acceptable classroom speech-to-noise
(SNR) standards.
 Eight classrooms in four primary schools for children
with developmental disabilities were used for data
collection.
 All schools were densely populated areas, close to busy
roads, and constructed of concrete within the past 30
years.
 All classrooms were selected randomly.
 The sound-field (SF) amplification system and the
public address (PA) system could provide adequate
SNR for classroom speech reception.
 The SF amplification system provided consistently
greater SNR that the PA amplification system, and
met the recommended guidelines in all
classrooms.
 The PA system failed to meet the SNR criterion in
two of the eight classrooms.
 Ten children (eight male, two female) with a positive
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diagnosis of APD were recruited as subjects to complete a
trial of FM use in the classrooms.
The mean age was 11 years, 8 months.
All children were fitted with Phonak EduLink FM systems
and the microphone was situated approximately 1 to 1.5
inches from the mouth of the speaker.
Students and parents were instructed in the use of the FM
system at the initial fitting.
Thirteen children were recruited as a control group. The
mean age was 10 years, 6 months. These children had
normal hearing sensitivity, function, and processing.
 There was no longer a significant different between the
control group and APD group.
 Significant differences were noted for several situations.
For the APD group questions 1, 3, and 5, which relate to the
following classroom situations: teacher talking in front of
room, teacher talking with back turned, and other students
making noise.
 For question 6, results for the APD group showed increased
risk for problems in the classroom situation with a student
answering during a discussion.
 The APD group showed greater rick than the control group
for problems with word recognition during a test or
directions.
This figure is pre-fit of the APD.
This figure is post-fit of the APD.
 The American Academy of Audiology (AAA) Pediatric
Amplification Protocol addresses fitting of
amplification on children with Mild Bilateral Hearing
Loss (MBHL) and Unilateral Hearing Loss (UHL).
 A personal FM system or sound-field amplification for
use in school.
 The decision to fit a child with unilateral hearing loss
should be made on an individual basis, taking into
consideration the child’s or family’s preference as well
as audiologic, developmental, communication, and
educational factors.
 150 surveys were sent out to families of children
with either MBHL or UHL and had a return of
40%.
 Of 27 children with UHL who were fit with
amplification, 26% wore it all the time, 4% only in
school, and 50% never wearing it.
 Of the 36 children with mild hearing loss, 44%
wore it all of the time, 3% only in school, 25%
never wearing it.
Including Pros and Cons of Inclusion
 Be patient (Hallahan, Kauffman & Pullen, 2009)
 It takes awhile to learn about a hearing impaired child.
 During class discussions, allow only one person to speak at a
time (Friend & Bursuck, 2006)
 Signal who is talking so the student with hearing impairment
know where to look.
 Noise has a detrimental effect on the listening abilities of all
students, but particularly students with hearing impairments
(Friend & Bursuck, 2006)
 A classroom’s acoustical environment can be immediately
improved by reducing or eliminating noise sources.
 Work closely with colleagues and specialists (Lewis & Doorlag,
2003).
 This will ensure that students with hearing impairments are
provided with appropriate experiences in the general
education classroom.
Pros
 Students with hearing
impairments do exceptionally well
in a general education classroom.
 Classmates normally do not even
know the student is hearing
impaired (depending on severity).
 Teachers can learn a lot from a
hearing impaired student, such as
their exceptionality.
 Hearing impaired students can
hear at a lower level but they can
also read lips (and maybe sign
language). Thus making them
especially adaptable to any
circumstance.
Cons
 Teacher must wear an FM system or
monitor hearing impaired student to
ensure comprehension of study.
 Must have special
accommodations/modifications for
hearing impairment which can hinder
a general education teacher’s
educational time.
 Loss of equipment can become a
determent to a hearing impaired
student because it takes months to
order and therefore this student would
need one-on-one.
 There is a lack of support when
training teachers on the FM system,
hearing aids, how to put batteries in,
etc (which takes more time).
To the Classroom
 Encourage students with hearing impairments to use
their hearing aids at all times.
 This is an important factor when it comes to a classroom
setting.
 Find the best seating position for the student to
speech read.
 This will allow for the student to read the teachers verbal
presentations.
 Talk in full sentences.
 Avoid the use of single words, and rephrase the entire
sentence if it was not understood; content and meaning
are easier to grasp in context.
 The academic problems of many students are related
to their impairments, not to a lack of intelligence.
 Closely monitor their achievement.
 Question students with hearing impairment to
determine whether they understand information
presented in class.
 Do not assume that students understand the material.
 Cleary explain concepts being taught. Use visual
examples whenever possible, and keep terminology
consistent.
 This will allow the student with a hearing impairment
more visual aides.
 Teachers and students should speak naturally, use
natural gestures, and maintain face-to-face contact
when speaking to a student with a hearing
impairment.
 It would be like speaking to a person without looking at
them. Would you do that?

Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. (2006). Including Students With Special Needs. (4th Edition). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Gallaudet University. (2009). History of Gallaudet University. Retrieved from
http://aaweb.gallaudet.edu/About_Gallaudet/History_of_the_University.html.

Hallahan, D. P., Kauffman, J. M., & Pullen, P. C. (2008). Exceptional Learners Introduction to Special Education (11th
Edition). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Hearing Loss Education Center. (2009). Types and Causes of Hearing Loss. Retrieved from
http://www.hearinglosseducation.com/Hearing/types-causes-hearing-loss.asp.

Health of Children. (2010). Otitis Media. Retrieved from http://www.healthofchildren.com/N-O/Otitis-Media.html.

Johnston, K., John, A., Kreisman, N., Hall, J., & Crandell, C. (2009). Multiple benefits of personal FM system use by
children with auditory processing disorder (APD). International Journal of Audiology, 48, 371-383.

Leung, S. & McPherson, B. (2006). Classrooms for Children with Developmental Disabilities.
International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 53, 287-299.

Lewis, R., & Doorlag, D. (2003). Teaching Special Students in General Education Classrooms.(6th Edition). Columbus,
OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

McKay, S., Gravel, J., & Tharpe, A. (2008). Amplification Considerations for Children With Minimal or Mild Bilateral
Hearing Loss and Unilateral Hearing Loss. Trends in Amplification. 12(1), 43-54.

National Association of Parents with Children in Special Education. (2007). Introduction to NAPCSE’s Hearing
Impairments Page. Retrieved from
http://www.napcse.org/exceptionalchildren/hearingimpairments.php.

World Health Organization. (2010). Causes of Deafness and Hearing Impairments. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/index.html.