Unilateral and asymmetric hearing loss among children is an issue that health care practitioners need to understand since it is an issue that continues to raise global attention with increased cases of hearing loss reported yearly. Researchers and medical practitioners are beginning to recognize the effects of hearing loss in development of young children. This hearing issue affects development of children, especially language development. The unilateral hearing loss (UHL) is a form of impairment where one ear functions normally while the other ear suffers hearing loss. Hearing loss has many implications for development of a child both physically and mentally ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . The current studies into this have disapproved of the traditional understanding that unilateral hearing is essential for normal speech and language to develop. Hearing impairment is common among newborn boys as compared to the female population ( Gremp et al., 2019) . Although hearing loss is still an issue in society, various technical advances that aid deaf children like a cochlear implant, hearing aid, sign language, and assertive devices have been invented.
Overview
Studies have been conducted on unilateral hearing loss and its impact on speech development. Recent researchers have proved that unilateral hearing loss is enough to affect the development of speech-language among children ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . The perspectives of hearing loss that have already been established are a configuration of loss, degree, and type. The hearing loss (HL) configuration is described as per pitch or frequency ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . Its degree of hearing loss can be measured based on the severity of the actual loss. On the other hand, the type of HL is used in the context to describe the part of the system that is affected ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . Genetic defects among the newborn are the most common cause of hearing loss among children, although infection of the ear by earwax is arguably another cause of the hearing loss, more preferably the older children ( Meinzen-Derr et al., 2019). Children suffering from hearing issues have difficulty in talking.
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Some devices can be used to test if the brain of a child can respond to sound to ascertain if the child might have hearing problems ( Meinzen-Derr et al., 2019). Hearing issues, if not well managed, may hurt the emotional, social, and verbal development of the child ( Meinzen-Derr et al., 2019) . Hearing loss and deafness are essential in understanding their effect on the development of speech among children. There are people with severe hearing loss but depend majorly on reading lips in their communication ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . The symptoms of the hearing impairment can be either profound, severe, moderate, or mild ( Keilmann, Friese & Hoffmann, 2019) . The patient classified to be having mild impairment may have an issue with understanding speech more so in noisy places.
Prevalence of Deafness
According to Schmucker et al. (2019) , the available data on those with hearing loss accounts for five percent of the global population. The statistics approximate the prevalence of hearing loss among children and adolescents in Germany (Schmucker et al. 2019) . The data used were derived from LIVIVO, Medline, Science Direct, Cochrane Library as well as Web of Science, which are trusted sources in terms of published data on health (Schmucker et al. 2019) . Approximately two-thirds of a thousand children in the US are born with hearing problems. According to Keilmann et al. (2019), ninety percent of children born with hearing problems are from families with no deafness in their history, with parents not experiencing hearing problems.
Several statistical records surrounding hearing loss have been carried, and data recorded showing that children have a higher number of hearing loss cases. Approximately around twenty percent of children with genetic hearing loss possess a syndrome (Keilmann et al. (2019) . These syndromes that are associated with deafness include sickle syndrome, change syndrome, neurofibromatosis type two, usher syndrome, and pendred syndrome. Self –assessments are used in the collection of prevalence data of hearing (Schmucker et al. 2019) . Research on deafness among children is essential for raising public awareness regarding issues relating to the prevalence of hearing.
Diagnosis
Hearing loss is essential diagnosed early enough before its effect on the child has not become severe on the child due to its devastating effects like permanent hearing loss. Children who are detected can be put under medical attention to help them recover, or a solution to reduce the impact of the problem can be put in place (Sahli, 2019) . Several studies have been carried out on the diagnosis process of deafness among children with hearing loss . Gremp et al. (2019) carried out a study aimed at investigating the impact of hearing loss among children who are at adolescence stage focusing on the age of diagnosis. According to Schmucker et al. (2019) , a population of 169 children with bilateral hearing loss was examined. The Denver Development Screening Test (DST) was applied in the process to ascertain the impact The diagnosis indicated 9.5% of the children were abnormal, 28.4% were suspicious while sixty-two present were normal (Sahli, 2019) . The six months diagnosis revealed that there is a similarity of outcomes among children diagnosed below a time frame of six months when diagnosis was carried out among children below the age of eighteen (Sahli, 2019) . Early diagnosis allows for earlier intervention services on children found to be suffering from hearing loss.
The diagnosis of hearing loss includes app-based hearing tests, general screening tests, physical exams, audiometer tests, and tuning fork tests. Hearing screenings assist in ascertaining the chances of hearing loss ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . It is not painful and can be administered to young children when they are asleep (Schmucker et al. 2019) . It is essential that children who fail the earing test be taken through a full hearing test, which involves thorough scrutiny of any chance of hearing loss ( Shahin et al., 2019) . An audiologist who can identify the type and extent of the hearing loss often conducts this test ( Gordon & Papsin, 2019) . The advantage of diagnosis is that it assists in finding a solution to the hearing problem before it is worsened.
Characteristics of Deafness
The main strength of such children with hearing loss is that they can learn lips reading and sign language faster as compared to children without hearing impairment ( Meinzen-Derr et al., 2019) . Deaf children when put together with kids without hearing issue, they understand gestures and sign language faster than the healthy kids. According to Meinzen-Derr et al. ( 2019) , deaf children are more sensitive to reading people’s minds. The deaf are emotionally positive and are very sociable as compared to kids without such complications.
Loss of hearing during early childhood development has several implications that require intervention. According to a study carried by Sahli (2019) , there are several characteristics of hearing loss that needs to be considered. The features include the child affected lacking auditory response to sound (Sahli, 2019) . These children have difficult social or interpersonal skills, verbal direction, and oral expression. Such kids with deafness issues are realized to have language delay as they show some articulation difficulty ( Dammeyer et al., 2019) . Deaf children are more into following than leading, as they can also get frustrated quickly, especially when their needs are never met ( Dammeyer et al., 2019) . Another characteristic is that they may apply hearing aid due to fear of rejection from other people. The most common challenges faced by deaf children include temporary shortages, language deficiencies, inadequate knowledge, and classroom acoustics.
The hearing loss of a child often has numerous effects on their parents as well as family members. According to Dammeyer, Hansen, Crowe, & Marschark (2019) , family and parents have often shown divergent results concerning their children's hearing loss. The issue is often associated with stress, depression, and parental mental health problems ( Dammeyer et al., 2019) . Some families regard such children to be more of a burden to them since such children may not be involved in some of the activities in the family ( Dammeyer et al., 2019) . Therefore, childhood hearing loss needs to be understood better by families and parents to impact more on their development.
Speech Problems That Deafness Creates
Hearing loss has considerable impact on development of speech among children. According to ( Keilmann et al., 2019) , hearing loss delays development of expressive and receptive communication skills. Learning about hearing impairment is an essential lesson for families since it can make them understand situations that are common among families ( Gremp et al., 2019) . Difficulty in learning speech may make deaf children not to perfume well in school. The challenge in communication might make it difficult for deaf children to express themselves. It is established that even with early intervention and identification of hearing problems among children, the demonstration impacts significantly in their social interaction. In case the issue of deaf children is not understood, they might begin to feel social isolation.
Sign Language
Deaf children are often taught to use visual communication strategies when interacting with people. The parents mostly use signs to communicate with their young ones with hearing problems ( Beatrijs, Kristiane & Mieke, 2019) . Sign language is the language commonly taught to the deaf to enhance effective communication with them ( Beatrijs et al., 2019) . The deaf is quick at responding to body language in their conversation ( Paulina et al., 2019) . Sign language and lip-reading are the most effective means that are used by the deaf in their communication. American Sign Language (ASL) uses hand movement in communicating with people ( Beatrijs et al., 2019) . There are various schools like school for the deaf where sign language is taught so that people can learn and understand communication using sign language. ASL has its own rules on word order, word formation, and pronunciation rules ( Keilmann et al., 2019) . Children of deaf parents who communicate in ASL naturally learn the language from observing the parents.
Cochlear Implant
Children with a hearing problem face severe impairment in the development of language and speech. Deaf children are unable to perceive acoustic-phonetic cues that are required for recognition of speech ( Shahin et al., 2019) . Such children can only be helped when their sensory deprivation is recovered by providing sensory stimulation ( Paulina et al., 2019) . Cochlear implantation is one of the neural stimulation, which is more useful to deaf children when installed at an early stage ( Shahin et al., 2019) . When cochlear implantation is provided to a pre-lingual deaf child at an early stage, there will be the promotion of speech perception, auditory function, and linguistic development ( Shahin et al., 2019) . The advertisement of these factors will enable these children to develop a speech that is essential for their brain development ( Shahin et al., 2019) . Subsequent cochlear implantation ensures vital improvement in intelligibility and speech perception ( Baron et al., 2019) . The advantages of the cochlear implantation are being experienced in both long and short inter-implant intervals ( Karimi et al., 2018) . It means that the benefits are never limited to a given range and individual. The cochlear implant is beneficial in situations where the hearing aid fails to be effective.
Conclusion
Hearing loss among children is an issue that has raised much attention among health practitioners leading to continued advanced inventions such as the use of hearing aid, cochlear implant, sign language, and assertive devices. The causes of hearing may differ from earwax infection to genetic defects. The argument that triggers childhood hearing loss still needs farther research to help reduce hearing issues among children. The children with hearing problems communicate through reading lips or using signs. Hearing aids or cochlear can assist people with hearing concerns to improve the effectiveness of their ability to hear. The diagnosis of a hearing problem is essential in determining its intensity among the children. Hearing screening of infants is necessary for ascertaining their hearing condition.
References
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