People With Disabilities
The nature, causality, assessment, prevention,
accommodation, and my personal
reflection of the hearing loss will be
discussed in my paper. I. Nature of the
Exceptionally: According to
Gallaudet University, approximately 1 of every 1,000
infants is born deaf
while 6 of every 1,000 are born with some degree of hearing
loss. Permanent
hearing loss at birth annually affects 24,000 infants in the
USA. In
other words, 6 infants per 1,000 will have a hearing loss in a least one
ear
that will affect communication, cognition, and educational
development.
Twenty to thirty percent of hearing loss in children occurs
during infancy and
early childhood. Some will suffer hearing loss in one ear
or possibly both.
There are different types of hearing loss. A conductive
hearing loss occurs in
the middle ear. This is where three small bones
involved in hearing are located.
A hearing loss that occurs in this part
of the ear is usually temporary. A
chronic or recurrent ear infections may
cause a hearing loss in the middle ear.
There are cases where there is a
malformation in this area that can be improved
or corrected through surgery.
There are occasions when a problem in the middle
ear can not be corrected. A
sensori-neural hearing loss occurs in the middle ear
and indicates that there
is nerve damage. This type of loss is not reversible.
In summary, there
are different natures of hearing loss some that can be
corrected or others
that are irreversible. II. Etiology/Causality: Parents
sometimes ask "Why did
this happen to my child?" In some cases, the cause of
a child’s hearing loss
may be easy to trace. There may be a family history of
deafness, a congenital
condition, an illness, an accident, a prescribed
medication, etc., that may
obviously be cause of the hearing loss. In many
cases, there may be no
obvious reason for the hearing loss. Parents must come to
understand that
they may likely never know the cause of this hearing loss. In my
case,
Meningitis was the cause of my hearing loss. When I was one year old, I
was
not responding to my parent’s calls. They took me to the hospital to
get
tested and found that I had Meningitis. III. Assessment Many birthing
facilities
in our country have currently adopted the "Universal Testing" of
all infants
for hearing loss. The two most frequently used measures for
testing infants are
the ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) and Otoacoustic
Emissions (OAE’s). Both
measures can be made on an infant while he or she is
sleeping and requires no
response from the child. The ABR monitors brain
activity. It looks specifically,
however, the activity that happens in
response to sound. OAE’s are a quick,
non-invasive probe measure that
determines cochlear, or inner ear, function. The
importance of early
childhood development is critical for a child with a hearing
loss. Early
diagnosis and intervention of hearing loss can mean the difference
between
toddlers entering school with severe language and concept delays
versus
children with age appropriate language and concept development. Early
hearing
screening paves the way for children to be able to begin life on an
equal
footing with their hearing peers. Recent research at Gallaudet
University
indicates that children whose hearing losses are identified in the
first 6
months of life, and who receive intervention services, developed
language within
the normal range. IV. Prevention/Remediation/Accommodation:
The law mandates
that public schools are responsible for providing an
"appropriate education"
within the child’s neighborhood school. School
districts are required to
educate students the least restrictive environment
with the related services
necessary to allow for their success. Some
counties/states will have what is
called "cluster programs." This is when
classes for the deaf or hard of
hearing are located in specific schools.
Students can be in an environment with
a teacher of the deaf and hard of
hearing and deaf and hard of hearing peers but
also be in a regular school
setting. Another options for family is a school for
the deaf. Most schools
for the deaf now offer different communication options
from which a family
can choose. Schools must take "language and communication
needs,
opportunities for direct communications with peers and professional
personnel
in the child’s language and communication mode, academic level, and
full
range of needs, including opportunities for direct instruction in the
child’s
language and communication mode" into consideration. This does not
mean that
the peer will also have a hearing loss but should be able to
communicate in
the deaf or hard of hearing child’s mode of communication. Many
parents
choose to have their children in a setting where other deaf and hard
of
hearing students are also in attendance thereby allowing for friendships
with
other deaf and hard of hearing students to develop naturally. Teacher
may need
to adjust their classroom to meet the student’s needs. The teacher
must focus
on reducing background noises as much as possible. To reduce
background noises
the classroom can have carpeting, area rugs, or drapes. If
the classroom do not
have drapes, tennis balls can be attached to the bottom
of chair legs to stop
chairs from scraping on the floor. Noise absorbing
material such as a corkboard
can be added to the classroom as well. The
teacher should consider background
noise when choosing the child’s seating
placement. The school should adjust
their teaching strategies to accommodate
their student’s needs. When teaching
in the classroom, the teacher needs to
remember that a hearing aide do not"correct" hearing in the same way that
eyeglasses correct vision. When
speaking to the class, the teacher needs to
be in a distance where the child
will be able to understand speech and speak
at a normal tone. They need to
remember that the deaf or hard or hearing
child may have fluctuating hearing
loss as a result of colds or ear
infections changing what we can hear from day
to day. There are communication
options that teachers can use in the classroom.
American Sign Language
(ASL) is a manual language that is distinct from spoken
English.
Extensively used within and among deaf community. English is, however,
taught
as a second language. Closed Captioning is way of communication used on
the
television set. Words appear on the bottom of the screen to communicate to
a
deaf or hard of hearing student. Another form of communication is
an
interpreter. Interpreters are used for deaf and hard of hearing students
to
communicate in ASL what the teacher is discussing. Total Communication is
the
philosophy of using every to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing
students.
The child is exposed to a formal sign-language system, finger
spelling, natural
gestures, speech reading, body language, oral speech, and
use of amplification.
The idea is to communicate and teach vocabulary and
language in any manner that
works in the classroom. V. Personal Reflections:
When I wrote this paper, I have
never given my "culture" background any
thought. Deaf culture is part of my
life. I have basically been raised in
more of a hearing culture setting then a
deaf culture setting. I went to
school with my hearing peers but yet had many
deaf friends. I went through
the nature, causality, assessment, and the
accommodation discussed in this
paper. I have experienced this first hand and am
lucky to have this support.
Deaf and hard of hearing has their advantages. We
have a right to sit up
front at a concert or event. We can also shut people out
by just switching
off our hearing aides. Being part of the Deaf community is a
great experience
and I would not change that for the
world.