Hearing Loss amongst Children and Adults - Essay Example

Hearing loss amongst children and adults is one of the sensory deficits that affect human population in the world. Consequences that come with loss of hearing include poor interpretation of speech sound, stigmatization of the person, social isolation, among others. Severe healing problem may worsen the situation to diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypothyroidism, among others. Most individuals having hearing problem are not aware they have this problem; it is through family members or friends who make them notice the problem. Hearing loss in a person develops gradually and it is usually related to noise of aging of a person. Loss of hearing rapidly develops when a person has a disease in the middle ear, has ear infection, or it is related to earwax. Hearing impairment are of three levels and measured in decibels, mild ranges from 25 to 39 decibels, moderate deafness ranges from 40 to 69 decibels, severe deafness between 70 to 89 decibels, while profound begins at 90 decibels and above. It is difficult to predict the effects of hearing loss of an individual from a pure tone data (Roeser, Valente and Hosford-Dunn 256). Sensorineural hearing loss will occur when the inner ear nerves are damaged thereby failing to transmit signals to the brain in a proper way. At the onset, people with hearing loss complain of mumbling or not understanding what is said. Common cause of sensorineural hearing loss is aging, the sensory cells and inner ear nerves gradually dies, as an individual grows old. This condition is not treatable medically or through surgery, but the severity can be reduced by the use of hearing aids. Problems occurring on the outer or middle ear leads to conductive hearing problem sound in this scenario do not reach the inner ear. This problem may be either permanent or temporary, the patient may complain of faint voice. One of the striking features of hearing impairment amongst adults is poor intellectual ability, and more so, lack of self-reporting skills. Most of the people having hearing loss are expressed as inactive with deteriorated speech, irritated easily, or have autistiform behavior. Hearing loss has no diverse effects on a person’s learning ability. However in children affected by hearing loss, they require special educational services such as use of amplification system, auditory training from specialists, systems used for amplification, etc. What is more, children with hearing loss learn vocabulary in a strenuous way and will find it difficult grasping various communication aspects. In comparison, children born deaf will use visible communication models such as finger spelling and sign language hence are able to reduce language delays. Literature of children having hearing loss cites behavioral problems as key problem. Children are mostly affected by behavioral problems show hyperactivities such as depression. In addition, children will never have the perception of being different from others, but with poor hearing, they develop negative self-image and this is evident when they show a variety of traits such as wearing glasses and being overweight. Many people consider deaf children to be immature when dealing with social issues, they are also egocentric and express aggressiveness when complaining (Wolraich, Dworkin and Drotar 387). Onset of deafness in adulthood has a different psychological picture, and there is a difference in the psychological symptoms during the onset and late onset of loss of hearing. Individuals in both stages have lots of anger, denial, and depression. An adult having early onset of hearing loss grows up dealing with above-mentioned problems among others. Children, however, bring manifestations of difficulties they had when they were children to their adulthood; some of the problems continue to be problematic at adulthood. For example, a child who has hearing loss and who was isolated when young and developed poor self-esteem grows up and may end up being an isolated adult who is underachiever. An adult is best understood with the development experience made while having hearing loss. It is important to know about a patient’s feelings relating hearing loss, measures taken by their family in managing the condition, and how it has impacted on their adulthood choices. An adult who undergoes hearing loss at an old age with no personality that incorporates hearing loss will have a different situation. Such an adult with a family, built personality and relating to a specific fixed life will have a disoriented life. Inability to converse with others in the society is one of the deleterious effects impaired by hearing loss (Tye-Murray 2). Majority of adults who have lost their hearing ability say it has robbed them their identity leading to identity crisis. They usually manifest reactive depression or even depression towards this typical external situation. An adult who gets diagnosed with hearing loss usually mourns the loss through withdrawal and refusal of amplifying the situation. At this stage, members of the family and audiologist are important because they help the patient at this stage. People who become deaf at adulthood need to be taught ways of interacting so that they can interact with the world. Depression at this stage manifests itself as tearful, slow response and the individual will go to an extent of changing sleeping patterns. Acceptance of the change of state will take many forms and will indicate integration of the loss. When undergoing through mourning stages, functioning will be affected over a short period of time though the person moves towards some degree of accepting the loss. In comparison, people who are born deaf usually accept their condition easily as well as their family members and are able to search for measures to counter the disability. This is because the born deaf do not have depression, strain on relationship, low self-esteem, and identity crisis like the people who suffer from hearing loss gradually. Moreover, born deaf find it hard to learn lip reading and sign language as opposed to the ones who have hearing loss. This is because the born deaf people usually have a problem in or encounter delayed language and speech development. Even though individuals who develop hearing loss have the ability to learn lip reading faster, the society’s value for physical beauty and perfection greatly affects them. Works Cited Roeser Ross, Valente Michael and Hosford-Dunn Holly. Audiology: Diagnosis. New York: Thieme Medical publishers Inc. 2007. Print. Tye-Murray Nancy. Foundations of Aural Rehabilitation: Children, Adults and Their family Members. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning. 2004. Print. Wolraich Mark, Dworkin Paul and Drotar Dennis. Developmental-Behavioural Pediatrics: Evidence and Practice. Philadelphia: Elsevier.2008. Print. Read More