The Difficulties of Hearing Loss in Education

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The people in the following list all have something in common: Whoopi Goldberg, Pete Townshend (lead guitarist of The Who), Huey Lewis, Helen Keller, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Thomas Edison. If you were unable to guess, all of these people had a hearing loss. In terms of formal definition, a hearing loss is, “a spectrum of disorders causing a disruption or distortion of auditory information reaching or being processed by the central nervous system.” Hearing losses not only effect adults or the elderly, they are also prevalent among children. As future teachers, we should understand everything that accompanies a hearing loss considering we may have a few children with this disability through our careers as educators.
To have a better understanding and appreciation of students with a hearing loss, I will introduce the types of hearing losses that are prevalent among children. The first classification of hearing loss is called congenital, or a hearing loss that occurs because of a birth defect or malformation. Most cases of congenital hearing loss are caused by, “genetic malformations, or infections caused by maternal ototoxic drug use during pregnancy.” The other type of hearing loss, acquired, happens during the first few years of life, is called an acquired hearing loss. “Acquired childhood hearing loss is usually caused by infections, trauma, ototoxic medication or missed congenital cases.” (Butler, 2012, p. 314) Acquired hearing losses are more common than congenital when we are dealing with children. Hearing losses are also classified by which ear the loss is in. A Unilateral hearing loss, occurs only in one ear, and a bilateral loss is in both.
Even if a child has a hearing loss during their early life it is difficult to d...

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...CME: Continuing Medical Education Vol. 30(Issue 9), p314-317.
Easterbrooks, S. R., Lederberg, A. R., Miller, E. M., Bergero n, J. P. Connor, C. M. Emergent Literacy Skills During Early Childhood in Children With Hearing Loss: Strengths and Weaknesses. Volta Review Vol. 108 (Issue 2), p91-114.
Eriks-Brophy, A., Whittingham, J. (2013). Teachers’ Perception of the Inclusion of Children with Hearing Loss in General Education Settings. American Annals of the Deaf Vol 158 (Issue 1), p63-97.
Noh, H.; Park, Y.G. (2012). How close should a student with unilateral hearing loss stay to a teacher in a noisy classroom?. International Journal of Audiology, 51, 426-432.
Porter, H., Sladen, D. P., Ampah, S. B., Rothpletz, A., Bess, F.H. (2013). Developmental Outcomes in Early School-Age Children with Minimal Hearing Loss. American Journal of Audiology Vol.22 (Issue 2), p263-270.

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