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Special Education

Notes 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.
11.2.2 Causes
All the causes of hearing impairment can be categorized under four classes: (a) Hereditary and Non-
hereditary (b) Congential 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 they of degenerative disability. Again 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. Overdose of strong drugs like streptomycin, quinine and
L.S.D. are associated with hearing impairment. So mothers are restricted to take these drugs
impairment. So mothers are restricted to take these drugs during pregnancy. Maternal malnutrition
and unhealthy living conditions during pregnancy are some important causes also. Studies reveal
that marriage among class blood relatives is another cause to produce hearing impaired children.
Medical practitioners say that 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 occure before birth
(a) Hereditary (b) Rubella
(b) Infectious Disease (d) Drugs and
(c) Malnutrition.
(a) Hereditary: 11 to 60 percent of sensory neural hearing impairments have a genetic cause
(dominant gene-Alpert's syndrome) and recessive gene transmission-(Usher's syndrome)
to the tune of 40% of deafness cases.
(b) Rubella: Maternal rubella, a German measles virus that has its most devastating effect
on an unborn child during first three months of pregnancy is most important cause, It
accounts for 27% of all the known cause of hearing loss.
(c) Infectious Disease: Early infectious diseases like mumps, influenza of the mother affects
the infant's hearing. Certain other diseases of the mother e.g., diabetes, kidney disease
liver diseases affect the baby's hearing capacity.
(d) Drugs: Some research has shown that overdose of strong drugs like streptomycin, quinine,
thalichloride and L.S.D. are associated with hearing impairment and therefore expectant
mothers should remain away from these.

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