Types of Hearing Loss in Young Children

Types of Hearing Loss in young children

Conductive hearing loss
Conductive hearing impairments occur when sound vibration cannot get from the surrounding air to the fluids in the inner ear as efficiently as they should. These impairments are caused by such things as:

Faulty development of the outer and middle ear.
Blockage of the ear canal (for example by ear wax).
Damage to the eardrum.
Damage to the ossicles (small bones of the middle ear).
Failure of the Eustachian tube to let air into the middle ear cavity.
Collection of fluids in the middle ear cavity.
Infection of the middle ear cavity.
Growth of a cyst in the middle ear cavity.
Growth of extra bone around the ossicles.

Conductive impairments never cause a total hearing loss but they do cause a loss of loudness. Although many sounds may become too quiet to be heard, those that are heard sound clear and undistorted.

Most conductive impairments can be treated by medication or by surgery. Those that cannot be cured can be alleviated by hearing aids, which helps restore the missing loudness.

Children who keep getting conductive hearing losses due to repeated ear infections may develop serious learning difficulties and perform badly in school. Repeated ear infections may also cause a more permanent hearing loss called a sensori-neural hearing loss.

Sensori-Neural Hearing Loss
Sensori-neural hearing impairments occur when the nerves of the inner ear fail to respond to sound or the hearing nerve fails to carry information to the brain. These impairments are caused by such things as:

Faulty development of the inner ear.
Inherited damage to the inner ear.
Damage to the inner ear and/or the hearing nerve from illness, drugs, or oxygen deprivation.
Damage to the ear from loud noises.
Acoustics neuromas.

Sensori-neural hearing impairments can have any degree of severity. In extreme cases the hearing loss is total. These hearing impairments cause a loss of loudness. They also cause a loss of clarity in those sounds that are loud enough to be heard.

Sensori-neural hearing impairments cannot be treated by medication or surgery, but most can be alleviated at least partially by hearing aids. Unfortunately, however, the hearing aids only restore the missing loudness. They cannot restore missing clarity.

Children with serious sensori-neural hearing impairments have difficulty learning speech and language and, therefore, require special educational treatment.

For more information, see the following hsdc.org articles:
Identifying Hearing Loss in Children
Suggestions for Regular Classroom Teachers When Dealing with Hearing Loss in Children