Deafness and Hearing Impairments

1
Deafness and Hearing Impairments
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Incidence

• 28 million people in US
• Most over 65
• 1.3 of students in special education
• Early Detection
• Attending
• Earaches / Discharge
• Makes speech sounds poorly or omits
  age-appropriate sounds completely
• Misinterpreting verbal requests
• Direct attempts at communication
• Facing speaker and attending
• Repetition
• Volume on electronic equipment

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Deafness and Hearing Impairment

• P.L. 101-476 defines Hearing Impairment
• P.L. 101-476 defines Deafness
• Very few students are deaf most are hearing
  impaired

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Sound Characteristics

• Two primary characteristics of sound
• loudness / intensity
• frequency / pitch
• Loudness is measured by decibels (dB)
• Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) or cycles per
  second
• Frequency is basically high and low pitch
• Communication

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Classifications for Hearing Loss

• 5 classifications for hearing loss in (dB)
• Slight 25-40 dB loss
• Mild 41-55 dB loss
• Marked 56-69 dB loss
• Severe 70-90 dB loss
• Profound 91 dB or greater loss
• A 70 dB loss is the cut-off between hard of
  hearing and deaf

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Types of Hearing Loss

• Conductive -
• Conductive hearing loss - originates in outer or
  middle ear
• Sensorineural -
• Sensorineural hearing losses are more serious,
  occurring in the inner ear

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Instructional Strategies

• If using an interpreter
• Face student when speaking
• Use videotapes with captioning
• Allow student to teach some sing language or
  other personal skills to classmates
• Be sensitive to social cues
• Have a system in place for identifying cues in
  schools that are only conveyed by sound
• Wear solid-color clothing
• New signs for carryover
• Extraneous noises
• Lighting