El perfeccionamiento de la congestión en la Modernidad

The earlier a hearing loss is identified, the better a child’s chances are for receiving early intervention and treatment and for developing good language and communication skills (Heward 2009:342). Hearing loss may be identified through neonatal screening or by the parent, health visitor or later by educators at school (Farrell 2006:31).

All infants, hearing and deaf alike, babble, coo, and smile. Later on, children who are deaf tend to stop babbling and vocalising because they cannot hear themselves or their parents, but the baby’s increasing silence may go unnoticed for a while and then be mistakenly attributed to other causes (Heward 2009:342). Hearing tests determine whether hearing is impaired, the extent of the impairment, and what part of the ear may be implicated (Farrell 2006:31). In addition, results of audiologic evaluation help to direct the diagnosis of hearing loss, to make appropriate referrals, and to guide treatment and management decisions (Paul & Whitelaw 2011:43).

The two most widely used methods of screening for hearing loss in infants measure psychological reactions to sound. With auditory brain stem response, sensors placed on the scalp measure electrical activity as the infant responds to auditory stimuli. In otoacoustic emission screening, a tiny microphone placed in the baby’s ear detects the “echoes” of hair cells in the cochlea as they vibrate to sound (Heward 2009:342).

A procedure called pure-tone audiometry is used to assess the hearing of older children and adults. The examiner uses an audiometer, an electronic device that generates sounds at different levels of intensity and frequency. The results of the test are plotted on

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a chart called an audiogram (Heward 2009:342). The sounds are transmitted through an earphone into one ear while the other ear is prevented from hearing. First the sound is reduced in intensity until it cannot be heard, then the intensity is gradually increased until the person signals that they can detect it (Farrell 2006:31). Figure 2.2 shows familiar sounds (speech, leaves rustling and traffic sounds) and where they are situated on an audiogram in terms of pitch and loudness, giving the audiologist an idea of the sounds that deaf learners miss.

Figure 2.2 Audiogram of familiar sounds (Spencer 2013:12)

Educators within an inclusive environment need to be observant and vigilant in getting to know their learners in order to meet their unique needs.

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Kochkin (2011:1) emphasises that it is incumbent upon educators to stay alert to the signs of hearing loss in children. If an educator suspects that a learner is having difficulty hearing, he/she should bring this to the attention of the learner's parents and school administrators so that the learner can undergo a thorough hearing assessment by an audiologist.

Signs of a learner's unaddressed hearing loss in the classroom are frequently associated with attention seeking behaviour and poor language skills. The following behaviours and characteristics are some of the manifestations of deafness and some form of hearing loss:

 Learners who may not seem to pay attention to instructions; have a short attention span; drift off or daydream frequently are usually labeled as learners with ADD (Attention Deficiency Disorder) or ADHD (Attention Deficiency Hyperactivity Disorder); however, this may be due to their inability to hear discussions or activities effectively.

 Learners with unaddressed hearing loss may seem to lack the motivation to learn and exhibit either overactive or aimless behaviours.

 Learners with hearing loss may act in an aggressive or withdrawn manner and frequently show excessive fear or anxiety owing to the frustration they feel at not understanding what is going on inside or outside the classroom.

 Learners may show delayed language development (e.g. immature use of syntax, limited vocabulary). Often this may come across as lisping or mumbling, or a refusal to speak during lessons.

 Learners may find it difficult to repeat words or sounds or to remember the names of people and places.

 Learners may make speech errors (e.g. omit the consonants from the end of words, miss out s, f, th, t, ed, en) or confuse words that sound similar (e.g. hat, fat, vat).

 Learners with hearing loss may become dependent, thus fearful to do anything without the educator’s permission or advice.

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 Learners may come across as the talkative or disruptive learners, as they may be watching others to see what they are doing and then follow or constantly ask others to repeat what they have said.

 Learners may often shout without apparently realising that they are being noisy.  Learners with hearing loss may be missing out on information and thus display

gaps in their learning (e.g. giving poor or incomplete answers) (Kochkin 2011:1; Storbeck 2005:15; Frederickson & Cline 2002:366).

An inability to hear places a young child at risk of delay in many areas, including the acquisition of spoken language, literacy skills and social development. If a child is language-delayed in any way, it is important to conduct a hearing test and to organise and implement an intervention plan as early as possible (Storbeck 2005:358). A priority goal in the education of all learners with hearing loss is to advance their language skills as much as possible. Any improvement in language will allow each learner to make better use of his or her intellectual potential, understand much more of the curriculum, and develop socially (Westwood 2011:46).

While listening and speaking remain the preferred method of communication for learners with mild and moderate degrees of hearing loss, for those who are severely to profoundly deaf, alternative manual methods might be needed. These methods include gestures, sign language and finger spelling. Deaf learners from deaf families will almost certainly have been exposed to, and become competent in, manual communication even before entering formal education (Westwood 2011:48).