Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Development- - Literature review Example

?Senorineural Hearing Loss and Development- Literature Review The degree of hearing in a child is ified as mild, moderate, severe or even profound since there is an approximate relationship that exists between decibel loss of hearing and the degree to which a child will experience difficult functionality. Researches indicate that having mild to moderate senorineural hearing loss has a significant effect on the development of a child, other researches defining the precise difficulty that may arise in a child. Volpe states that in early studies, there were sharp relationship that recurrent cyanotic attacks in infants causes hearing loss, later it was discovered that a relationship between a recurrent apneic spells, hypoxemia and senorineural hearing causes loss of hearing amongst infants (2008, p.142). Shulman Brian and Capone Nina concluded that nearly all persons affected with senorineural hearing loss usually experience some degree of speech clarity problems and the severity of the loss does not indicate the clarity of the speech (2009, p.116). Congenital hearing loss is seen in newborn babies in most circumstances either by inheritance or by abnormal development in the foetal stages of a child. A comprehensive research done by Valente, Hosford-Dunn and Roesser found that three out of a thousand children born have birth defects that results in hearing loss; sixty per cent of these being inherited, and seventy per cent of the inherited defects are nonsyndromic while fifteen to thirty per cent being syndromic (2008, p.251). One of the most common causes of sensorineural hearing loss amongst children is congenital cytomegalovirus, although majority of children affected by this virus have normal hearing. There are indicators present in newborn children that can be used to predict values necessary for the development of loss of hearing with congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Rivera et al in their book revealed that a child born with disseminated diseases such as hepatosplenomegaly, hepatitis, petechiae is usually predictive of hearing loss (2002, p.765). Petechiae infections in children at birth are likely to cause loss of hearing than those born without the disease. Children that have intrauterine growth retardation are two times likely to develop loss of hearing as compared to those that do have normal intrauterine growth. Congenital hearing loss may also happen after the birth of a child, which is caused by trauma, Meniere’s disease, age-related loss of hearing – presbycusis, and exposure to noise causing machines such as firearms. In order to be able to manage hearing loss, it is advisable to detect senorineural hearing loss at an early stage by the use of high-risk registry. Screening procedures that are conducted in hospitals has great importance in determining audio sensitivity. A child begins learning about language in the womb and staying a minute without sound affects the speech and language development of an infant. Most important domains in the development of a child are speech and language acquisition. A child who has lost speech after acquiring language is able to communicate orally than a deaf child. Early identification of hearing loss enables a child to have high language quotient for development of language as compared to a child who is identified at a later age. From the journal written by Iyer and Oller, there is an interpretive advantage in maturation of children (2008, p.120), as children with similar age are supposed to be alike in several aspects of maturity except when affected with factors such as canonical babbling. However, with a difference in other factors such as hearing, children experience difference in maturation. The explanations for late maturity in children with the onset of canonical babbling in infants with typical hearing are the fact that there are more syllables produced per utterance in sessions of canonicals than when in canonical precessions. The fact that utterances respond to breath, infants with typical hearing problem, who start producing canonical syllables because of increased respiratory control will have slow developments in speech. These children are capable of producing long strings of syllables within an utterance and the common occurrence of reduplicated and varied babbling. In case a child undergoes evaluation for deafness caused by congenital bilateral having a history of syncopal attacks, and presence of family history of a sibling with unexplained death, it may be caused by Jevell and Lange-Neilsen syndrome that is inherited. At the age of three to five years, a child may have syncopal attacks and most of these children die at the age of fifteen years if appropriate cardiac medication is not administered. Valente et al goes ahead and state that it is important to recognize syndromic hearing loss in order to identify potentially treatable medical conditions in order to provide information necessary for genetic counselling and to identify family members that have undiagnosed medical problems related to this disease (2008, p.252). Moreover, Bluestone and Klein, says knowing the degree loss and whether it is conductive or sensrineural is important in order to determine the availability of sensorineural loss (2007, p.184). If the patient is found to have conductive loss that is bilateral, the patient should undergo tympanostomy to prevent the hearing loss from interfering with the child’s development process. Most patients suffering from sensorineural hearing loss experience tinnitus effects in their brain. A child suffering from sensorineural hearing loss will at all times have a reduced sense of hearing and lack fail to disseminate effectively sound during a speech, this happens regularly when the patient is in a noisy environment. Reynolds and Fletcher-Janzen contend that tinnitus is one of the common symptoms of sensorineral hearing loss, and it causes a sensation of sound in the head to be heard in one or both ears (2007, p.1832). The patient will hear hissing, roaring, whistling sounds and at the same time have the feeling of dizziness that will range from light headaches vertigo, sensation of severe whirling that will eventually lead to nausea. Wolraich et al contributes by saying there is an increased frequency of impulsivity to children with hearing loss and it reflects heavily on the patterns of interaction and response to various actions such as touching another person in order to get attention (2008, p.387). Basic research that has been conducted in the field of neuroanatomy and electrophysiology has been crucial in the development of sustainable sensory organ. The research has identified that the most relevant phase for maturity of subcortical auditory pathway is the first year of a child’s life. Rolhfs et al in the research they carried out concluded that acoustic potentials that are evoked may at times document cerebral maturation process in early childhood (2010, p.1353). Therefore having a fast latency and a conduction time that is shortened in the first months of a child are the key physiological correlates of the myelin sheath that has matured. At this age of a child, having stimulations that are intensified will not enhance the maturity at such a time, even though the stimulation will affect synaptogenesis. This will affect the capacity of the acoustic system to function and will result in a performance that is highly integrated. Wolraich, Drotar and Dworkin on the other hand, state that the foetus is able to respond behaviourally to sound they show much preference to the mothers voice over that of other females (2008, p.387). Between two to three months, the infant is able to discriminate sound, and recognize elements that are prosodic to their native language. From this, it is evident that language development that is related to audio starts as early as when brain development takes place. Developmental outcome for children affected with hearing loss includes quality of early communication, origin of the hearing problem and the various diversities of the society the child experiences. Key areas for further research include the diagnostic possibility for congenital sensory loss of hearing chromosomal abnormalities, metabolic diseases, and genetic disorders including abnormal development of the auditory system in a child. Sensory hearing loss has had several definitions but in real sense, chromosomal disorders that are caused by trisomies are also associated with hearing problems. According to Fleisher and Ludwig majority of patients are diagnosed with anatomic features trisomy disorders despite the fact that loss of hearing may have occurred at birth or developed over a period of time (2010, p.295). A third of patients have been diagnosed with congenital hearing loss that is clinically associated with a syndrome that is known, the rest of the patients are considered to have hearing loss that is nonsyndromatic. Research should be carried out to generate more advances in the testing of genes in order to elucidate abnormalities in the genes especially for patients with loss of hearing that is nonsyndromic. There should be increased universal newborn screening with a view of scepticism especially by neonatologists and all stakeholders that are involved in the implementation of screening programs. It is important to test carefully the level of sensitivity before implementing mass screening of new-born babies suffering from loss of hearing. Having an optimal protocol is able to permit infants with normal hearing to be segregated from those with hearing loss. If the identification and intervention of hearing loss is not done in the first six months of the new-born baby, the infant will perform poorly in its early years of development. There should be critical training to paediatrics on the knowledge and skills necessary to work with infants in order to managed hearing loss. References Bluestone Charles and Klein Jerome. 2007. Otitis Media in Infants and Children, 4e. Ontario, USA: BC Decker Inc. Fleisher R. Gary and Ludwig Stephen. 2010. Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine. New York: Wolters Kluwer Health. Iyer N. Suneet and Oller D. Kimbrough. (September 1, 2008). Prelinguistic Vocal Development in Infants with Typical Hearing and Infants with Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss. The Total Review, Volume 108(2), 115-138. Reynolds Cecil and Fletcher-Janzen Elaine. 2007. Encyclopaedia of Special Education, Volume 3. New Jersey, USA: John Wiley and Sons Inc. Rivera, Lisa B.; Boppana, Suresh B.; Britt, William J.; Stagno, Sergio; Pass, Robert F.; Fowler, Karen B. Pediatrics. (October 1, 2002). Predictors of Hearing Loss in Children with Systematic Congenital Cytomegalovirus. Pediatrics Journal. Volume 110(4), 762-767. Rolhfs Anna-Katharina, Wiesner Thomas, Drews Holger, Muller Frank, Breitfub Achim, Schiller Regina, and Hess Markus. (November 1, 2010). Interdisciplinary approach to Design, performance, and Quality Management in Multicenter Newborn Hearing Screening Project. European Journal of Pediatrics. Volume 169(11), 1353-1360. Shulman Brian and Capone Nina. 2009. Language Development: Foundations, Processes and Clinical Applications. Miami: Jones and Barlett Publishers. Valente M, Hosford-Dunn H, and Roesser R. 2008. Audiology: Treatment. New York: Thieme Medical Publishers. Volpe Joseph. 2008. Neurology of the Newborn, 5th Edition, Volume 899. Philadelphia, USA: Elsevier Health Science. Wolraich Mark, Drotar Dennis, and Dworkin Perrin. 2008. Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics: Evidence and Practice. Philadelphia, USA: Elsevier Health Science. Read More