What is it?
A person with a hearing impairment has a full or partial loss of the ability to hear and discriminate sounds. This is due to an abnormality in the structure and/or functioning of the ear. A hearing impairment is described in terms of the degree of hearing loss (e.g. mild to profound) and the type of hearing loss (e.g. permanent – sensori-neural or not permanent – conductive hearing loss, or a mixed hearing loss which is a combination of both).
Causes of hearing Impairment?
- Genetic factors (e.g. Hearing loss in the family).
- Infections during pregnancy, (such as cytomegalovirus, rubella, herpes or syphilis), toxins consumed by the mother during pregnancy or other conditions occurring at the time of birth or shortly thereafter.
- Premature birth.
- Childhood infections (e.g. measles, chicken pox).
- Head trauma after birth.
- Otitis Media (middle ear infection) due to nasal congestion.
Indicators that a child may have hearing difficulties:
- Speech sound system is delayed and they are not developing sounds appropriately.
- Frequent or re-occurring ear infections.
- A family history of hearing impairment.
- Difficulties with attending and listening.
- Delayed language skills.
- Performing poorly at school.
Speech Pathology approaches and activities that can support the individual or their carer's include:
- Management strategies for children with Hearing Impairment.
- Activities and strategies to help reduce hypernasality (too much air resonanting or being projected through the nose). Children with a repaired cleft palate will often still have difficulty with hypernasality during speech.
- Strategies to eliminate the over use of “back sounds” such as “k”, “g’. Children with cleft palate often present with backing (i.e. where the tongue hits the back of the mouth) such that their speech contains lots of “k”, “g” and other back sound affecting speech intelligibility.