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Deafness
Background
The human ear and its central connections are well developed and help us to hear a range of sounds in complex listening conditions, have a sense of direction and movement of sounds and also help to maintain our balance. In some ways it is probably the most developed sensory organ we have.
The outer hair cell system within the inner ear help us to hear a vast range of sounds from very quiet to very loud by dampening down the loud and amplifying the quiet sounds. The whole auditory system is capable of “filtering out” unwanted background noise. When this system fails, not surprisingly, the first symptom we experience is difficulty in hearing speech when there is background noise. Similarly if the balance organ within the inner ear is not functioning well we experience dizziness or vertigo and a sense of motion, and in a child, this may manifest as delayed physical milestones e.g. delay in walking.
Hearing is extremely important for the development of spoken language. Those with a pre-lingual (prior to development of speech) profound hearing loss will not have access to speech sounds and hence will not develop oral language, while those with a severe pre-lingual hearing loss will not develop normal speech. Moderate hearing loss may affect speech and (oral) language development and will have a considerable effect on mainstream education of children. Mild hearing losses also may affect the ability to learn depending on a number of other factors.
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