Hearing impairment also referred to as hearing loss is either the total or the partial inability to hear (Kujawa & Liberman, 2009). It is important to note that hearing loss can either occur in one ear or both ears. Hearing loss among children can affect the ability of a child to learn the spoken language as well as, result in work-related difficulties in adults (Morton, 1991). It can be acknowledged that hearing loss can either be temporary or permanent. This particular paper will critically analyze hearing impairment and how it affects children by doing the following; discussing the prevalence of this disability among the population, its causes, characteristics, how it assessed and identified, the behavior of children with this disability, what educational approaches work best with children with this disability, the developmentally appropriate activities that would be practiced for such children, how members should respond to children with this disability, and the educational expectations of such children.
The prevalence, known causes, and the characteristics of hearing impairment
It can be acknowledged that in the year 2013, about 1 billion people were affected by hearing loss to some degree. Hearing loss causes severe hearing disability to about 538 million people and moderate hearing disability to about 130 million people every year across the globe (Lin, Thorpe, Gordon-Salant, & Ferrucci, 2011). Hearing impairment has a number of causes and these include aging, perinatal problems, acquired causes, and genetics. Some of the characteristics of hearing impairment include pressure and pain in the ears, feeling as if the ears are blocked, difficulty in understanding speech, the need to increase the volume of audio sources, and difficulty in discriminating speech from background noises.
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How hearing impairment is identified and accessed
The identification of hearing impairment is usually done by an otolaryngologist, a medical doctor, industrial or school audiometrists, certified audiologists, or any other audio technicians. Hearing impairment is usually identified through a series of examinations, hearing tests, laboratory tests, and scans (Norton, Gorga, Widen, Folsom, Sininger, Cone-Wesson, & Fletcher, 2000). The examinations include the otoscopy test and the tympanometry test. The type of scans conducted include the MRA and the CT scans.
The behavioral expectations of a child with hearing impairment
Some of the behavioral expectations of a child with hearing impairment include speech delays, communication difficulties, behavioral characteristics, for example, emulating the body language of others, as well as, selective hearing.
What educational approaches work best for children with hearing impairment
There are various education approaches that can be used for children with hearing impairment and they include the following:
The application of visual strategies
It is appropriate that the teaching methods be adjusted to better accommodate the visual needs of the students with hearing impairment (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2011).
Classroom adaptations
The teachers should make sure that their classrooms are well equipped for the hearing impaired students (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2011).
The regular evaluation of progress
The teachers should always evaluate the progress and especially of those with impaired hearing (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2011).
The developmentally appropriate activities for a child with hearing impairment
There are a lot of activities that a child with hearing impairment can engage with in order to effectively know the world around him or her and they include reading, labeling objects, exploring sounds, reading, and singing songs.
The expected educational outcomes of a child with hearing impairment
Children with hearing impairment have every opportunity to achieve success in terms of education and career achievements just like any other children. It is advised that such children get the appropriate care and attention when an receiving education so that they may be able to grasp and understand concepts like the others do.
References
Kirk, S., Gallagher, J. J., Coleman, M. R., & Anastasiow, N. J. (2011). Educating exceptional children . Cengage Learning.
Kujawa, S. G., & Liberman, M. C. (2009). Adding insult to injury: cochlear nerve degeneration after “temporary” noise-induced hearing loss. Journal of Neuroscience , 29 (45), 14077-14085.
Lin, F. R., Thorpe, R., Gordon-Salant, S., & Ferrucci, L. (2011). Hearing loss prevalence and risk factors among older adults in the United States. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences , 66 (5), 582-590.
Morton, N. E. (1991). Genetic epidemiology of hearing impairment. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 630 (1), 16-31.
Norton, S. J., Gorga, M. P., Widen, J. E., Folsom, R. C., Sininger, Y., Cone-Wesson, B., ... & Fletcher, K. A. (2000). Identification of neonatal hearing impairment: summary and recommendations. Ear and hearing , 21 (5), 529-535.
