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Special Education

Notes If answers to four or five questions are marked 'yes' the teacher can suspect hearing impairment in
the child. Such a child should be referred to the audiologist and ENT specialist for systematic
investigation and assessment. If the assessment report indicates mild or moderate degree of hearing
impairment the child can be integrated in the regular school without much difficulty. If the assessment
report indicates severe or profound hearing loss the child should be placed in a special schools for
the deaf.
How would one identify the hearing impaired children? Obviously there are some behavioural
indicators and some measurements tools including audiometer. But before the child is referred to an
audiometric clinic, certain signs are visible. These are called behavioural clues. The child displays
one or more of the following.
1. Frequent ear aches.
2. Fluid discharge from ear.
3. Cold and soar throats occurring frequently.
4. Lack of equilibrium.
5. Inconsistency in following directions.
6. Always asking "what"-"what"
7. Observing the lip movement.
8. Speech defects.
9. Limited vocabulary.
10. Has trouble in paying attention.

Usually, a person is considered deaf when wound must reach at least 90 decibels (5
to 10 times louder than normal speech) to be heard, and even amplified speech cannot
be understood.

5.2.2 Causes
All the causes of hearing impairment can be categorized under four hadings: (a) Hereditary and
Non-hereditary (b) Congenital and Acquired (c) Pre-natal, Perinatal and Postnatal, and (d)
Physiological and Psychological. Sometimes hearing impairment is predetermined by the genetic
structure of the individual. It may be present at birth or develop latter in life. Some of these defects
are acquired through disease, trauma or accident. There is a hereditary type of degenerative disability.
Again there is a hereditary type of degenerative nerve deafness which may be present at birth or
develop latter in life. So mothers are restricted to take these drugs during pregnancy. Maternal
malnutrition and unhealthy living conditions during pregnancy are some important causes also.
Brain fever, the improper growth of brain or auditory system and brain tumour and some of the
neurological causes of hearing impairment. The perinatal causes include full time delivery followed
by anoxia problems, use of forceps in delivery, instrumental delivery, premature delivery followed
immediately by jaundice and use of anaesthetic agents in delivery, Whooping cough, typhoid fever,
encephalitis and mumps are significant post-natal causes of hearing impairment. Besides all these
factors, accidents, severe burns, toxic drugs, emotional depression and traumas also cause hearing
defects. Abnormalities in the inner ear or the auditory nerve result in loss of hearing which is rarely
amenable to surgery. Sometimes psychogenic deafness is confused with malingering in which the
individual pretends to be unable to hear. But Malingering can be detected by special audiological
tests.
1. Causes Before Birth of H.I.: There are certain causes which occur before birth
(a) Hereditary (b) Rubella

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