Hearing loss can be caused by various factors, including illness, injury, old age, and exposure to loud noise. It can be mild, moderate, severe, profound, or total. Assistive devices such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and light alarms can help improve hearing and communication for those with hearing impairments. Alternative means of communication include sign language, lip reading, and writing.
Hearing-impaired people have difficulty hearing the full range of frequencies on the hearing spectrum. Some people are born with hearing problems, while many others develop them over time, from illness, injury, disease, old age, or exposure to loud noise. People with hearing impairments may have mild, moderate, severe or profound hearing loss or may suffer from total deafness. Most hearing-impaired people are hard of hearing, but can benefit from assistive devices such as hearing aids. Those with severe, profound, or complete hearing loss can use light alarms, sign language, lip reading, and even cochlear implants to facilitate communication and help improve hearing.
Hearing loss is typically classified as mild, moderate, severe, profound, or total, depending on the hearing-impaired person’s ability to hear sounds clearly. A person with mild hearing impairment should be able to hear sounds measured at 25 to 40 decibels and above. People with moderate hearing loss should be able to hear sounds measured at 40 to 70 decibels and above. Severely disabled people may only be able to hear sounds measured at 70 to 95 decibels and above. People who are so deaf that they cannot hear sounds at all are considered deaf.
Hearing loss can occur due to blockage of the outer or middle ear. Blockages can occur due to fluid buildup, wax buildup, foreign bodies, tumors, swelling, or disease. This type of hearing loss is known as conductive hearing loss because it prevents sound waves from reaching the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss, a second type of hearing loss, occurs when structures in the inner ear, the auditory nerve, or the auditory cortex of the brain are damaged. Both types of hearing loss can occur at the same time.
People with hearing impairments may have difficulty communicating with others, due to the nature of their disability. Traditional speech, lip reading, sign language, finger spelling, and writing all provide alternative means of communication for the deaf. Sign language interpreters can help deaf and hard of hearing people understand what is being said to them.
Those with severe, profound, or total hearing loss often prefer lip reading as the most convenient way to understand a person who is not hearing impaired. Written communication, while often much easier to master, can make some hearing impaired people feel more socially isolated. Those who are hard of hearing can make themselves understood more easily by maintaining eye contact while speaking slowly and clearly.
Hearing aids, light alarms and other assistive devices can help the deaf with routine daily activities. Hearing aids can increase the range of audible sounds for many with hearing impairments, while cochlear implants can be beneficial to those for whom hearing aids are no longer effective. Light alarms can let a hearing-impaired person know when the phone is ringing or when someone is at the door. Captioning television programs and text phones can also be invaluable tools for people with hearing impairments.
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