Have you ever wondered about...
THE EAR AND HEARING (Series 2)
PAGE 3
STUDENT ACTIVITY
- Bring to school an object that makes one of your
favorite sounds. Compare that sound with the
sounds from objects brought in by your classmates.
Which objects have a high pitch? Which a low
pitch? Do any have both?
WHAT ARE SOME SIGNS OF HEARING
LOSS?
- ringing in the ears
- saying "What?" often
- watching a speaker's face intently
- turning TV or radio on loud
- confusing similar- sounding words
("messed" for "nest;" "dim" for "din")
- understanding others when they talk to you in the
same room but not if they are speaking from a
different room
WHAT CAUSES HEARING LOSS?
Do you know a friend, relative, or neighbor who
has difficulty hearing? Have you wondered why that
person has a hearing problem? Sometimes a person is
hearing problem is only temporary—it lasts a short
time. Other times the loss is permanent-it will remain the same or maybe become worse.
Not all hearing problems are the same. Hearing
loss is caused because of damage to one or more parts
of the ear. How does this damage happen?
Ear damage may happen before birth. When a
baby is forming. in the mother's uterus, several things
can happen which change the development of the
baby's ear. A mother can become ill with a virus that
damages the baby's ear. German measles is one type
of virus known to cause damage to the hair cells of
the inner ear. Some parts of a baby's ear may not
form correctly; an outer or middle ear may not develop at all.
We inherit hair color and eye color from parents.
Your particular hair color may go back to a grandparent. In a similar way, some children or adults may
inherit a hearing loss because their father, mother,
or other close relative may have a hearing loss. It is
harder to identify a hearing loss as an inherited loss
when there is no record of previous hearing loss in
a family and when no living relative, young or old,
has hearing loss.
Serious illness can cause damage to the delicate
parts of the inner ear. Mumps and meningitis, for
example, are illnesses that may cause permanent
hearing loss.
At times doctors need to make difficult decisions
in order to save a sick person's life. Some life-saving
drugs can cause permanent damage to ears. Doctors
only choose to use this kind of medicine if someone
is very ill.
Accidents to the head can also damage the ear.
A hard blow to the head can crack the bone of the
inner ear or break the ossicles.
Noises can damage hearing, too. The loss can be
temporary or permanent. Exploding a firecracker
close to the head, playing loud music, shooting guns
or cap pistols, and working with power tools for long
periods of time again and again can damage the inner ear.
Noise can even cause a permanent, annoying ringing sound in the ear.
Do you enjoy listening to music through head-sets on a portable radio/ cassette player? Worn at high
volume for several hours, these devices can also cause
hearing problems.
Many older people, maybe even your grandmother
or grandfather or a great aunt or uncle, have hearing problems. These problems may be caused by
noise, medicine, accident, illness, or even by getting older. just like our eyes, some parts of the ear
can wear out as we age.
IS THERE HELP FOR HEARING LOSS?
Each person's hearing loss differs depending on
how much damage has happened to the ear and
where the damage has happened. Some individuals
with a hearing loss can understand part of what is
spoken. Others can hear better when sound is made
louder. For other people, making sound louder only
makes it more annoying or garbled.
If you have a temporary hearing loss, see your doctor and have your hearing tested by an audiologist.
An audiologist is a professional who knows how to
test hearing. An audiologist works with people of
all ages who have hearing problems. Some audiologists work in schools to test children's hearing and
help them with their hearing problems in their
classrooms.
Your doctor or an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat)
specialist can examine your ears and recommend
whether medicine or surgery will heal them.
Can a hearing aid help? For many people a hearing aid can be helpful. The hearing aid doesn't give
these people normal hearing, but many people can
use them to hear better at home or work. Some individuals cannot benefit from a hearing aid because
their ears are too damaged.
Hearing aids, like cars, come in different models.
Different hearing aids amplify or make sounds louder
in different ways. An audiologist after a careful
evaluation can help a person decide which type of
hearing aid—if any—will help.
Other devices are available to help people with hearing loss. Special telephones or telephone attachments amplify or
make sound louder. A law passed by Congress in 1982 makes these special phones available in public places such
as the airport, train station, or library.
Some new devices make it possible for persons with hearing problems to make the sound of the television
louder—without bothering family and friends in the same room. Similar listening devices in churches, synagogues, theaters,
and public meeting rooms allow hearing impaired people to hear the
speaker—even from the back of the room. These devices have special microphones that send the sound to a receiver
or headset worn by the person. This is similar to the way a radio disc jockey can transmit music to your radio
receiver over the air waves.
New surgery permits some doctors to implant a hearing aid type of device inside the inner ear. This device, known
as a cochlear implant, is similar to a hearing aid. The implant sends signals through the nerve of hearing to the brain.
This surgery has helped some individuals who could not hear anything—even with a hearing aid. But more research
needs to be done before the cochlear implant will help people to understand speech clearly.
Some people cannot hear and understand spoken
words even with special listening devices. They use
other devices to talk on the telephone or to watch
television. They may use a TDD (Telecommunication Device for the Deaf) to type conversations over
the telephone; they may use a telecaption adapter
or decoder which makes it possible to read on the
television screen the words spoken by actors, actresses, and announcers.
| Special devices make it possible for hearing impaired persons
to enjoy
television and use telephones more easily. |
 |
 |
With TDDs deaf people can type telephone conversations to family members,
friends, and business contacts. |
| Decoders help people with a hearing loss to read the speakers' words on the
television screen.
|
 |
| Specially designed listening systems make it possible for hearing
impaired
people to hear the speakers' words in a large room or auditorium. |
|
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| You may see these symbols on phones in public places. They identify special
phones that make sound louder for users with hearing problems.
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