Hearing impairment is a decrease in person's ability to hear. The most severe form of hearing impairment is deafness. According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately three in every 1,000 children born in the Unites States have hearing loss. The majority of these children have parents who can hear. Having a hearing disability does not only affect a person's hearing but it can have a lasting impact on person's social and language development, as well. Many people with hearing impairment suffer from social isolation and mental disorders, such as depression.
Delayed Language Development
A child who can hear typically learns language from a person who speaks his native language. Hearing impaired children, on the other hand, typically have parents who can hear and who do not know sign language. Thus, children with hearing impairments are forced to learn sign language from people who usually do not know it well. Moreover, it may take some time before the hearing deficit is discovered. This means that a child's language acquisition begins later in life. Not surprisingly, children with hearing impairments often have delayed language development, says the Pennsylvania State University. For example, the vocabulary develops more slowly in children with hearing loss. They also have difficulty learning grammar. It typically takes longer for children with hearing impairments to learn to read and write, as well.
Social Isolation
According to Dr. G. K. Hebbar, hearing impaired children may suffer from social isolation. This might partly be due to their delayed language development. They also have difficulty picking up on auditory social cues. However, a child who feels like she is part of a deaf or hearing impaired culture is less likely to feel socially isolated. On the other hand, it is possible for a child who uses sign language as his almost exclusive method of communication to feel cut-off from his parents and other people who may not be very knowledgeable in using sign language. In addition, according to Deaf Education, hearing-impaired children tend to play more with adults than other children. This isolates them more from their peers.
Depression
According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, hearing impairment does not necessarily mean that a child will develop psychological problems, but when it is combined with heredity and environmental factors, a child with a hearing deficit is at greater risk for developing, for example, depression. The American Psychiatric Association states that people with chronic illnesses have a 25 to 33 percent risk of becoming clinically depressed. Low self-esteem is also common among children with hearing impairments, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Teenagers especially do not want to be different from their peers, which is why they often develop low self-esteem as a result of a hearing impairment.
References
- Dr G K Hebbar's Micro Ear Surgery & ENT Endoscopy Centre: Impact of Hearing Loss in Children
- Deaf Education: Let's play---you and me!
- The Pennsylvania State University: Development
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: The Psychology of Hearing Loss
- National Institutes of Health: Newborn Hearing Screening
