Diagnosis of Hearing Loss

  Parents may wonder how their children lose their hearing. Some children may have partial hearing, and some may have no hearing at all. Diagnosis of hearing loss may vary. Congenital hearing loss occurs at birth, and Acquired hearing loss occurs later in life.

Types of Hearing Loss

• Conductive Hearing Loss: Issues with the outer and middle ear, ear canal, and eardrum. Blockage or interference that makes a sound into the ear seems low. It can be repaired by medication or surgery.  
• Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Damage in the inner ear or auditory nerve.  The common issue is caused by the malfunction the outer hair cells, and it is permanent. Hearing aids or cochlear implants can be treated.
• Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder: Damaged of the inner hair cells or nerve in the ear. Transmitting sounds from the inner ear to the brain is disrupted. Medical device, therapy, and visual communication procedures can help children develop communication skills.
• Mixed Hearing Loss: Children who have both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.

 

Causes of Hearing Loss

  Audiologists may not be able to tell parents exactly why their children are deaf, but they can tell parents possible reasons why their children are deaf. That doesn't mean audiologists are wrong about the diagnosis, it just means they do not always have answers.

  Some children may be born deaf from a genetic disorder that obstructs the development in the inner ear and the auditory nerve, and some are born deaf due to complications before or at birth.

  Other children become deaf after birth due to infections or illnesses. However, sometimes adults can become deaf due to the same complications. Loud noises, injuries to the ear or head, and medications can cause a person to become deaf.

  Hearing loss cannot be prevented. In America; about 28 million of people are deaf or hard of hearing, and about 30 million becomes deaf from loud noises. At this point; when the parents find out their children are deaf, they should remind themselves their children are not incapable.

  If adults became deaf later in life; it's much harder for them to accept it, because they were able to hear everything until they hear less or nothing.