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Description of Degree of Hearing Loss vs. Potential Effects
Every child is different. The potential effects of a hearing loss depends on many factors including degree of loss, but also upon early identification and amplification, early intervention services, and parent involvement.
May have difficulty hearing faint or distant speech. A child with mild loss may miss up to 10% of speech signal when speaker is at a distance greater than three feet, or if the environment is noisy. Likely to experience some difficulty in communication & education settings. Consider need for hearing aid and intervention.
Understands conversational speech at a distance of 3-5 feet if the loss is in the 36dB range but may miss up to 75% of conversational speech if the loss is in the 50dB range. Amplification may enable listener to hear & discriminate all sounds. Without amplification, 50% to 100% of speech signal may be missed. Speech may be affected unless optimally amplified.
Conversation must be very loud to be heard without amplification. A 55dB loss can mean 100% of the speech signal missed. May have difficulty in settings requiring verbal communication, especially in large groups. Delays in spoken language & reduced speech intelligibility expected without intervention & amplification.
If loss is pre-lingual, spoken language & speech may not develop spontaneously, or could be severely delayed unless modifications & interventions are taken. With optimal amplification, should be able to detect all the sounds of speech and identify environmental sounds. Without amplification, is aware of loud voices about one foot from the ear and likely to rely on vision for communication.
or greater Aware of vibrations more than tonal pattern. Many rely on vision rather than hearing as the primary avenue for communication and learning. Speech and oral language will not develop spontaneously without modifications and intervention. Speech intelligibility often greatly reduced and atonal voice quality likely. Residual hearing can benefit from amplification. Potential candidate for a cochlear implant. Use of a signed language or a signed system may benefit language development.
Until recently, children with unilateral hearing loss did not have their hearing loss detected until they were in school. Now, with the advent of newborn hearing screening, we are detecting the presence of a unilateral, hearing loss during the first year of life. A review of the literature indicates that children with unilateral hearing loss may be at risk for speech and language delays and/or academic challenges. We don't know, however, which children are at risk. We also do not know at precisely what age the unilateral hearing loss has an impact. The Colorado Home Intervention program (CHIP) offers consultation to families of children with a unilateral hearing loss until that child reaches 3 years of age. As part of the consultative service, we suggest parents participate in an evaluation of the child's development. In this way, we can detect if and when the hearing loss affects the child's development. While some children will never exhibit an effect from the hearing loss others may experience some challenges. Contact your CO-Hear or CHIP for more information. (see resources list for contact info.)
(also sometimes known as Auditory Dysynchrony) Auditory neuropathy is a hearing disorder in which sound enters the inner ear normally but the transmission of signals from the inner ear to the brain is impaired. It can affect people of all ages, from infancy through adulthood. The number of people affected by auditory neuropathy is not known, but the condition affects a relatively small percentage of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. People with auditory neuropathy may have normal hearing, or hearing loss ranging from mild to severe; they always have poor speech-perception abilities, meaning they have trouble understanding speech clearly. Often, speech perception is worse than would be predicted by the degree of hearing loss. For example, a person with auditory neuropathy may be able to hear sounds, but would still have difficulty recognizing spoken words. Sounds may fade in and out for these individuals and seem out of sync. Taken from: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/ hearing/neuropathy.asp Hearing aids may or may not benefit these children. Cochlear implants may benefit individuals when traditional amplification fails.
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