In some cases, the loss is extremely sudden. Most often, the cause is unknown. Sometimes, it can be traced to specific diseases, such as meningitis, or to ototoxic medications, such as Gentamicin. In both cases, the final degree of loss varies. Some suffer only partial loss, while others become profoundly deaf. In the former case, hearing aids can be used with varying degrees of success, depending on the exact nature of the loss. In the latter, ultimately the affected person will depend on speech-reading and/or sign language for communication.
Table of contents |
2 Social Impact of hearing loss 3 How to communicate with someone who has a hearing loss 4 Quotation 5 External links |
Hearing impaired persons with partial loss of hearing may find that the quality of their hearing varies from day to day, or from one situation to another. They will also, to a greater or lesser extent depend on both hearing-aids and lip-reading, similarly to more severely disabled people. They may perhaps not always be aware of it, but they do admit to it being important to see the speaker's face in conversation.
Some people may merely find it difficult to differentiate between words that begin with consonantal sounds such as the fricativess s, z, or th, or the plosivess d, t, b, or p. They may be unable to hear thin, high-pitched or metallic noises, such as birds chirping or singing, clocks ticking, etc.
Others will find their condition so much worse if circumstances in their immediate environment affect the way they are able to use their hearing-aids, or prevent them from employing their lip-reading skills. A room with a high ceiling, sound-absorbing materials or acoustic tiles on the walls will affect the sound of a speaker's voice adversely. The position of the listener,too, sitting at a right angle to the speaker at a long seminar table, thus being able to hear only with one, maybe the ineffectual ear, can make a difference. Difficulties can also arise for the listener trying to lip-read, if the speaker is sitting with his back against the light-source and is in this way obscuring his face.
The speaker's accent; the topic under discussion, possibly with many unfamiliar words; the softness of his voice; possibly his having a speech impediment; a habit of holding a hand in front of his mouth or turning his face away at times: all these tendencies cause problems to the hard-of-hearing, especially when they have to rely on lip-reading. The rustling of papers, and notebook pages being turned are precisely the noises that will be the first thing hearing-aids pick up.
Those who lose their hearing later in life, such as in late adolescence or adulthood, face their own challenges. For example, they must adjust to living with the adaptive devices that make it possible for them to live independently. They must also adapt to using hearing aids and/or learning sign language. Loneliness and depression can arise as a result of isolation (from the inability to communicate with friends and loved ones) and difficulty in accepting their disability. The challenge is made greater by the need for those around them to adapt to the person's hearing loss.
Partial Loss of Hearing
Social Impact of hearing loss
How to communicate with someone who has a hearing loss
Quotation
External links