The Difference between Deafness and Hearing Impairment - Case Study Example

Deafness Disability ID: History of deafness Early history refers to deaf as inferior spices among humans. Ancient Greeks considered deaf children as being incapable of learning and conducting any religious ritual, as it was considered a god’s curse to be born as deaf. However, later, in 1600s scientists and physicians developed techniques to help deaf children towards speech development. A monk in Benedict developed various methods to teach people with hearing impairment the art of speaking. During same time, an Italian physician, G. Cardano taught his deaf son to communicate successfully with others, using different symbols. While the mother of great inventor, Alexander Graham Bell was hard of hearing sine her birth, he used his earned funds to develop a school, called Volta Bureau, to teach deaf children. He also pursued actively the occupation of a deaf educator during late 1800s. During World War I & II, deaf children helped the armies of their countries by using sign languages to pass the sensitive information.(Knowing Your, nd) People have used Different terminologies to define disability related with hearing impairments. For example, ‘deafened’ means the person who has acquired deafness later in life. While, ‘hearing impairment’ is a medical term, ‘hard of hearing’ is a sociological term. ‘Signing deaf’ is a term for deaf people who communicate using sign language.(Terminology, nd) Description of deafness Before describing this disability, it is essential to mention the difference between deafness and hearing impairment. While common sense provides the definition of being deaf as not being able to hear anything, the hearing impairment or hard of hearing means the ability to hear only partially. However, the fact that deaf people carry the residual hearing ability gives a new dimension to this definition. Accordingly, the physiological definition of deafness relates to the level of sound that the particular person is able to hear. This hearing sensitivity is normally described in terms of ‘decibels’ (dB). This level of sensitivity starts with zero as the perfect detection of an average person to hair faintest sound. The numbers above the zero level indicate the degree of hearing impairment. According to physiological intervention, people with hearing impairment of 90dB or above are considered as deaf and people with less than 90db hearing sensitivity level are considered ‘hard of hearing’. However, there is yet another viewpoint that relates the degree of hearing impairment with the impact it may have on speaking and developing a language, particularly in case of children. Accordingly, educators define a person as deaf who is not able to process, through audition, the linguistic information, even with the help of any hearing aid. On the other hand, educators maintain, persons who are hard of hearing can use their residual hearing with the help of a hearing aid to process successfully this information, through audition. As the occurrence of hearing inability is directly related to the learning ability of a child, any one who develops hearing impairment after the birth is at advantage to learn better than the child who is born deaf. Accordingly, educators have labeled the born deaf children as ‘congenitally deaf’ and those who get the deafness after the birth as ‘adventitiously deaf’. Similarly, for adults, deafness that occurs after development of language and speech by them is called ‘post-lingual deafness’ and if it occurs before the development of language and speech, then it is called ‘pre-lingual deafness’. However, professionals have identified the following levels to differentiate between the two in terms of decibels. The mild deafness refers to the hearing sensitivity level of 26 to 40 dB, while 41 to 55 dB relates to moderate dearness. Similarly, professionals maintain that 56 to 70 dB relates to moderate to severe level of deafness, while 71 to 90 dB refers to severe deafness. The sensitivity level of 91 dB and above refers to profound deafness. However, educators relate deafness in children directly to the ability towards development of language and speech, based on the child’s audio-logical experience. In any case, the time of occurrence for deafness, in any person, is significant for educationists as well as physiologists.(Learners, nd) Prevalence of disability According to World Health Organization (WHO) reports, around 5.3 percent of the global population are suffering with hearing loss disability. Out of these 360 million humans, around 183 million are males and 145 million are females, while children of both sexes count for 32 million. As hearing-loss is related to aging, almost 33 percent of people above the age of 65 years suffer from hearing disability. In Middle East and North African region, around 1.2 million children suffer from hearing disability, which amounts to almost 0.9 percent of the total deaf population. In this region, around 6 million males and 4 million females suffer from hearing impairment. The male percentage, accordingly, is around 4.1, while 2.9 percent are females. However, according to WHO studies, the prevalence of hearing disability is mild in countries of this region that includes UCC, UAE and Middle Eastern region. While there is evidence of slight hearing impairment to around 9 percent of total adult deaf population of this region, the moderate impairment is a bit more than 2 percent. The evidence of any severe hearing impairment in this region is almost negligible In developed countries such as USA and UK, which comprise of higher income population and high GNI per capita, the deaf count as only 11 percent of the total deaf population, across the globe. Among them, 0.5 percent is children, while 4.9 percent and 4.4 percent are male and female adults, respectively. In addition, the prevalence of hearing impairment is only mild to moderate in these countries.(WHO Global, 2012) Causes of deafness There can be several causes of deafness. The major cause is genetic which accounts for almost 50 percent of congenital hearing impairment in children. In addition, infections in children such as air infections and measles can lead to hearing loss. Trauma and faulty operating procedure during birth can also lead to deafness. This paper discusses in detail the two of the causes in following paragraphs. Causes related to location of specific problem The cause for any hearing impairment is related to the location of the specific problem within the hearing mechanism. Accordingly, conductive hearing impairment refers to any interference with the passage of sound while it is being conducted along the pathway of outer or middle. Similarly, causes of sensorineural hearing impairment relates to the problems in the inner ear. The mixed hearing impairment is caused by the combination of both these factors. The sensitivity loss of more than 70 dB indicates to a problems in the inner ear. Causes of hearing impairment problems in outer, middle and inner ear Tumors and skin infections in the external auditory canal can cause hearing problems in outer ear. Viral infections such as “otitis midia” in the middle ear can cause hearing impairment, especially in children. Genetic or hereditary factors are responsible for most of the deafness related to inner ear problems. Accordingly, the hearing impairment caused by these inner ear disorders is also called congenital deafness. (Learners, nd) Characteristics of hearing impairments Cognitive In this area, children would face problems related with auditory memory and development of vocabulary, as hearing impairment would hamper there ability to comprehend these cognitive parameters. However, providing meaningful information through use of multi-sensory presentation can help in tackling this problem, in the classroom. In addition, the length of completion of an auditory task may also increase due to problems related to auditory attention. The distraction caused by hearing impairment can also lead to problems in concentration and focus on the specific topics. However, many solutions can possibly solve these problems. For example, providing information in written and visual format as well as giving oral information in short durations would help in tackling this problem. Social The deafness can cause behavioral problems in classroom and when interacting with peers that can result in peer acceptance issues. The expression of emotions becomes problematic with children having any hearing impairment. However, several measures such as organizing proper peer support, teaching self-control and self-management and reinforcement of appropriate behaviors can help in solving these issues. Cultural The deafness can result in delayed acquisition with respect to language and vocabulary rules. In addition, the thoughts and feelings may not be articulated properly while interacting within the cultural groups. The deficiency in language development can affect the interaction of language dialect and cultural variance. People with hearing impairment can also have difficulty with expressive and receptive language. Academic Academic deficiencies will include delay in acquisition of writing, mathematical and reading skills. It addition, the deaf students may find difficulty in computing Math as well as decoding the text while reading comprehension may not be proper. Such students can face difficulty in solving mathematical problems. Communicative This is the major problem with any deaf person, especially the students, as they cannot understand the teachers’ lessons and the advice from their peers. Since most of the classroom activities require communication to students in an effective manner, deaf students find it difficult to understand their peers and teachers, while they are not able to express themselves in any manner involving oral communication. However, teaching strategy for such students must include provision of support from speech pathologists to train students in language expression. In addition, establishing peers support system is necessary, while teachers should make use of skills required for effective communication.(Dowdy, 2014) Educational interventions for deaf students While the above paragraphs have briefly detailed the teaching strategies with respect to various characteristics of deafness, the following paragraphs provide names of five educational interventions that could help the students with hearing impairment, with detailed discussion on two of them. Classroom adaptations Curricular adaptations Socio-emotional considerations Universal learning design Other instructional adaptations Classroom adaptations As the required classroom adaptations for students with hearing impairment are similar to those required by students with any other physical impairment, it is essential that the teachers explain to other students about the special needs of such learners. In addition, teachers must ensure that these students get acceptance by their classmates and peers. However, it is also necessary that these students with special needs do not get overprotection, at any time during the study program. Such students must also learn to become independent so that they can face the world during later years in life, without mush difficulty. In addition, students with hearing impairment would require changes in the classroom with respect to lighting, sound transmission, seating arrangements, among other things. Similarly, using a clock orientation connected to various classroom activities can help these students in matching other students while pursuing various activities. Providing ample space for keeping hearing aids and other equipment, while having flexible arrangement for classroom seats would also help such students. (Lewis & Doorlag, 2011) Instructional adaptations Students with hearing impairment must have access to various technological devices that can help them in communicating effectively in a normal classroom. Accordingly, teachers must have knowledge about these devices so that they can explain to such students about their use and maximum utilization. In this direction, many assistive listening devices are available currently. These include sound and voice amplifiers as well as hearing aids that can create visual communicative modes of the messages and provide visual alerts. The visual technological devices for students with hearing impairment include captioning systems, computer-assisted talking notebooks, instructional video CDs and special computer systems and microcomputers. The audio technological devices and materials include programmable hearing aids, FM systems, induction loops and amplification systems. In addition, computer-based training systems and software for speech training and development are essentials for the teachers to include in their special needs program for such students.(Dowdy, 2014) Works-cited Dowdy. S. P. P.(2014), Teaching Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Settings, Sixth edition, Pearson Education Limited , Press Knowing Your Disability, (n.d.), Retrieved from: http://www.know-the-ada.com/t4/history-deafness.html Learners who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, (n.d.), Retrieved from: https://www.sendspace.com/file/g2l2kr Lewis. R. B & Doorlag. D. H..(2011), Teaching Students with Special Needs in General Education Classrooms, Eighth edition, Pearson Education Limited , Press Millions of People, (n.d.), Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/pbd/deafness/news/Millionslivewithhearingloss.pdf Terminology, (n.d.), Retrieved from: http://www.cad.ca/terminology_deafness.php WHO Global Estimates, (2012), Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/pbd/deafness/WHO_GE_HL.pdf Read More