Types of Hearing Impairment in Children

Hearing impairment or hearing loss is the inability to hear in children which is caused when there is some problem with one or some other parts of ear. A hearing impaired child can partially hear some sounds or nothing at all depending on what type of hearing impairment he is suffering from. The other terms used for hearing impaired children are deaf, or hard of hearing children.

Hearing loss or hearing impairment in children affects their speech and language development that results in difficulty to communicate and interact with others. Hearing impairment can be present at birth of a child or can be developed later on life that is treated by using any of the speech and language therapy by expert SLPs.

There are three basic types of hearing impairment in children that are categorized according to which part of the auditory system is damaged.

   1.  Conductive Hearing Loss

It exists in a child when there is a disruption or mechanical blockage of sound waves in the middle ear or outer ear canal but the inner ear functions properly. It includes hearing the sound before it reaches the inner ear but there is reduction in sound or faint sound is heard.

This type of hearing impairment is treated by surgery or medication. The most common reason of hearing loss in children is caused by otitis media that is an ear infection having accumulation of fluid in the middle ear.

Some causes of Conductive Hearing Impairment include extreme wax buildup, serous otitis media, perforated eardrum, and otitis ecxterna. You can read here for detailed causes and treatment of Conductive Hearing Impairment.

   2.  Sensorineural Hearing Loss

This hearing problem is developed when the cochlea (inner ear) or auditory nerve has damage of sensory hair cells. As a result, the sound is not clear; a child cannot hear in noise or can even have permanent hearing loss (not listening at all). Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) cannot be corrected surgically. It affects child’s ability to speak normally.

Some causes of Sensorineural hearing loss include heredity, exposure to loud noise, malformation of the inner ear, meningitis, mumps, and measles. Checkout here for more detail of SNHL

   3.  Mixed Hearing Loss

It is the combination of both Conductive and Sensorineural hearing loss resulted by damage in outer ear or middle ear and in the inner ear or auditory nerve. For the conductive loss, surgery is attempted to overcome the loss but for Sensorineural component no treatment is done.

Other Hearing Impairments

• Unilateral or Bilateral Hearing Loss

It is referred by hearing impairment of any one or both ears. A child having Unilateral hearing loss cannot locate source of sound properly but responds normally to environment and have normal speech development. Bilateral hearing loss refers to the same difficulty.

• Auditory Neuropathy (AN)

In this hearing impairment, sound cannot travel to the hearing centers of the brain however cochlea functions normally. Children having this problem can hear sounds but do not identify what those sounds mean. Read here for more detail

• Pre-lingual Deafness

It occurs in infants before they acquire a proper spoken language. It is caused by some disease or trauma. It is treated by Cochlear implants within the first 2–4 years of a child.

• Post-lingual Deafness

This disability is encountered after acquisition of language due to some disease or trauma and is more common than Prelingual deafness in children.

Kalimati Speech and Communication Center provides best speech language therapy in Dubai. It offers Hearing Impairment Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) under its Individual therapy programs to improve communication and hearing ability of children.