Communication and hearing impairment

Although in major society often the loss of sight is considered a much worse disability than the loss of hearing, in fact it is the other way around. Hearing is indispensable as far as human communication is concerned, and its loss always creates a huge social barrier. Children born deaf develop more slowly and their thinking and speech is always affected. Moreover, do not forget that hearing is an important sense of security, because it provides us with the ability to monitor our surrounding and assess threats in very wide areas (even where we cannot see), and is the only sense active even during sleep, too. That's the reason why warning signs like fire alarms, sirens, or alarm clocks, are mostly acoustic.

Levels of hearing loss

We can talk about:

• people with hearing impairment (slight, moderate, severe or profound - depending on decibels they can hear);
• people with hearing loss (nearly total - and total, which are also called deaf).

Types of hearin loss

• Conductive (when there is a problem with the Outer or Middle Ear which interferes with the passing sound to the Inner Ear; this can be caused by too much earwax, ear infections, etc., and in many cases, surgery and some types of hearing technologies can be used to treat this kind of hearing loss.).
• Sensorineural (when the hearing organ is damaged and it is necessary to strengthen the sound).
• Auditory processing (when a person cannot understand and louder voice is not helpful—in this case, we should rather speak more slowly, pronounce carefully, and allow the person to lip read).
• Mixed hearing loss (occurs when both Conductive Hearing Loss and Sensorineural Hearing Loss are present in one person).

For people who lost hearing during their lives, an important factor is if the loss happened before or after they began to speak (we talk about the prelingual or postlingual deafness - approx. before or after age 7 years).

What are the common symptoms of hearing loss

• A person asks others to repeat themselves;
• A person often say “what?” all the time, or he/she needs to be looking at someone to hear what they’re saying (reading their lips);
• A person turns the TV or music to a volume others find too loud;
• A person cannot have a usual conversation with others because he/she can't hear them well;
• A person has trouble hearing on the phone;
• A person has ringing in his/her ears (it is often thought to be a symptom of hearing loss or damage to the auditory system — and hearing loss and tinnitus very often go hand in hand).