Most people would probably find such a subject to be pretty mundane but the author of A Quiet World: Living with Hearing loss does a great job of writing in a way that’s not just entertaining but also provides a lot of great information.

Read the review from Publishers Weekly:

“Some 28 million Americans and 350 million people worldwide live with hearing loss,” psychologist Myers (The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty) explains in his compassionate and humorous new work; and he is one of them.

As he maintains, to be without hearing is to be socially isolated. And, even more important, since language is necessary for learning, without an equivalent for the spoken word, childhood development can lag behind.

In this 10-year journal of his experiences and observations, Myers charts the progression of his own hearing loss and compares it with that of his mother, who became profoundly deaf and, despite her family’s efforts, increasingly isolated in a silent world all her own.

As a loving observer, Myers’s wife shares her sadness and frustration with her husband’s growing problem and unwillingness, for many years, to do anything about it. In turn, he stresses that it is up to the affected individual to seek av (Read more…)

It’s an easy to understand guide that will help with everything from emotional support to technical details about your child’s condition.

The author does a fantastic job of detailing technical information in a personal experience way.

Allowing for the reader to really feel the story and not be bored with all of the technical details.

If your child has complete hearing loss than the book may not completely fulfill what you’re looking for, but there is a wealth of information in the book regarding hearing loss.

The book has received a lot of positive feedback and continues to be one of my favorite recommendations for parents with children suffering from hearing loss.

(Read more…)

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2005 estimates, 278 million people across the world suffer from some kind of hearing impairment, including, but not limited to, total deafness.

“Hearing impairment” technically refers to partial or total loss of hearing in either one ear or in both; it encompasses both conductive and sensorineural hearing impairment issues.

These may be obtained from environmental factors, or they may be congenital (in other words, acquired at birth.)

Most of the facts about hearing impairment typically fall into two categories.

Conductive hearing impairment is defined as a problem with the sound wave-conducting tissue in the middle or outer ear. It is commonly due to such causes as untreated childhood ear infections and is can generally be cured or treated through use of both medications and surgical methods.

Sensorineural hearing impairment, on the other hand, involves the inner ear and occasionally the main nerve that connects it to the brain. It results from overexposure to noise or old age, and can be permanent unless treatment measures such as hearing aids or cochlear implants are employed.

The statistical facts about hearing impairment are sobering. 80% of all cases occur in poorer countries, but most of those in the United States are preventable. They are caused by such things as ear infections in children and too much noise exposure at events like rock concerts.

This means that the main solutions for hearing impairment include awareness, prevention, early detection, and medical intervention early on in the impairment process.

Decisions based on the facts about hearing impairment should always take into account the age of the patient.

For example, if the victim is of advanced age, hearing aids may be the best and least expensive option. But hearing issues in children can affect them for the rest of their lives, causing difficulties with pronunciation, spelling, and of course serious pain in social situations.

Cochlear implants and other such long-term solutions may be best for the welfare and future of the child.

Science has made many new advances in the field of hearing impairment and more research is being done every day to assist victims of this terrible infirmity. For example, recent studies indicate that vitamin E, taken in 400 mg doses twice a day, can restore part or most of a patient’s hearing even if the initial hearing loss was sudden and of unknown cause.

Consultation with a doctor can provide more of the facts about hearing impairment and help to find further solutions.

Sounds that register at a high frequency are more susceptible to loss than low ones, which may lead the victim of hearing loss to act as though they can hear sometimes and not at others.

This is simply because high sounds, for example consonants, are more difficult for them to hear.

However, depending on the severity of the loss, certain other sounds can still be heard, so it is unfair to say that the affected person is “just pretending” or practicing “selective hearing” for their own benefit.

High frequency hearing loss is a little-understood phenomenon that often precedes other types of hearing loss and, in some cases, comes simultaneously with them.

To the victim of high frequency hearing loss and other types of hearing disorders, everyday words may be missing little pieces. They hear the low inflections and vowels of each word, but not the rest of them, meaning that in some cases they will understand what is being said to them and respond, and in other cases they cannot hear well enough to function.

It may be useful for them to try and face the speaker whenever possible. Lip reading, a useful technique employed by those who are fully deaf, can also assist victims of any type of hearing loss.

Consulting with a doctor and determining the severity of normal or high frequency hearing loss can also be helpful, since in many cases hearing aids that are designed to restore high frequency sounds can be employed. In other situations, cochlear implants may be surgically added in order to provide a more permanent, long-term solution.

It is often difficult to tell the difference between high frequency hearing loss and mild to normal hearing loss. Especially with all of the background noise inherent in modern life, the only discernible symptom may be a slight problem with understanding words; at times, conversations may become a series of mumbles to the hearing-impaired listener and they may simply chalk it up to crosstalk or competing sounds.

The key distinction will be distortion of any kind. Music is an especially good indicator; victims of many types of hearing loss find that they cannot enjoy music as they formerly did because the sounds of many instruments have become warped.

It’s the natural wear and tear the eardrum goes through as we get older. This is why like it or not, in a few decades you may be asking people to repeat themselves—hearing loss typically begins in our 40’s and reaches its worst stage in our 80’s, when it affects 50% of the population.

But is it fair to have to wear hearing aids before then? Other than old age, some causes of hearing impairment are as follows.

Hearing loss basically falls into two categories: conductive and sensorineural.

Conductive hearing loss is when the tissues of your ear have been damaged and can no longer conduct sound waves the way they should.

This type of hearing loss is most commonly caused by intense exposure to loud noise, a major obstruction of the ear passage (which can usually be corrected by surgery), inflammation of the ear tissues brought on by extreme ear infection, or a ruptured ear drum. It can also result from cerumen, or an extreme buildup of earwax that requires removal by a doctor.

Sensorineural hearing loss, on the other hand, is not due to external causes. It is most often caused by something inside the body behaving wrong, such as a cranial nerve connected to the ear, parts of the brain that control the ear malfunctioning, or internal issues with the inner ear.

This may be congenital (acquired genetically at birth) or acquired from outside influences. This can occur not only from long term noise exposure but also incorrect dosages of medications. Viagra, certain diuretics, macrolide antibiotics, and heavy abuse of narcotics like Vicodin and OxyContin have been identified as causes of hearing impairment.

Of course, physical trauma can be responsible, but several common diseases are also related. They are mostly degenerative: measles, mumps, and meningitis; STDS like syphilis, Chlamydia, HIV/AIDS, autoimmune disease, adenoids, fetal alcohol syndrome and premature birth.

While various treatments and cures are in development for sudden hearing loss and related problems, so far the only completely corrective measure comes in the form of hearing aids or cochlear implants.

So, it is always vitally important to know about the symptoms and causes of hearing impairment in order to take preventative measures or to catch them at an early stage.