People With Disabilities Essay Research Paper The

People With Disabilities Essay, Research Paper

The nature, causality, assessment, prevention, accommodation, and my personal

reflection of the hearing loss will be discussed in my paper. I. Nature of the

Exceptionally: According to Gallaudet University, approximately 1 of every 1,000

infants is born deaf while 6 of every 1,000 are born with some degree of hearing

loss. Permanent hearing loss at birth annually affects 24,000 infants in the

USA. In other words, 6 infants per 1,000 will have a hearing loss in a least one

ear that will affect communication, cognition, and educational development.

Twenty to thirty percent of hearing loss in children occurs during infancy and

early childhood. Some will suffer hearing loss in one ear or possibly both.

There are different types of hearing loss. A conductive hearing loss occurs in

the middle ear. This is where three small bones involved in hearing are located.

A hearing loss that occurs in this part of the ear is usually temporary. A

chronic or recurrent ear infections may cause a hearing loss in the middle ear.

There are cases where there is a malformation in this area that can be improved

or corrected through surgery. There are occasions when a problem in the middle

ear can not be corrected. A sensori-neural hearing loss occurs in the middle ear

and indicates that there is nerve damage. This type of loss is not reversible.

In summary, there are different natures of hearing loss some that can be

corrected or others that are irreversible. II. Etiology/Causality: Parents

sometimes ask ?Why did this happen to my child?? In some cases, the cause of

a child?s hearing loss may be easy to trace. There may be a family history of

deafness, a congenital condition, an illness, an accident, a prescribed

medication, etc., that may obviously be cause of the hearing loss. In many

cases, there may be no obvious reason for the hearing loss. Parents must come to

understand that they may likely never know the cause of this hearing loss. In my

case, Meningitis was the cause of my hearing loss. When I was one year old, I

was not responding to my parent?s calls. They took me to the hospital to get

tested and found that I had Meningitis. III. Assessment Many birthing facilities

in our country have currently adopted the ?Universal Testing? of all infants

for hearing loss. The two most frequently used measures for testing infants are

the ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) and Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE?s). Both

measures can be made on an infant while he or she is sleeping and requires no

response from the child. The ABR monitors brain activity. It looks specifically,

however, the activity that happens in response to sound. OAE?s are a quick,

non-invasive probe measure that determines cochlear, or inner ear, function. The

importance of early childhood development is critical for a child with a hearing

loss. Early diagnosis and intervention of hearing loss can mean the difference

between toddlers entering school with severe language and concept delays versus

children with age appropriate language and concept development. Early hearing

screening paves the way for children to be able to begin life on an equal

footing with their hearing peers. Recent research at Gallaudet University

indicates that children whose hearing losses are identified in the first 6

months of life, and who receive intervention services, developed language within

the normal range. IV. Prevention/Remediation/Accommodation: The law mandates

that public schools are responsible for providing an ?appropriate education?

within the child?s neighborhood school. School districts are required to

educate students the least restrictive environment with the related services

necessary to allow for their success. Some counties/states will have what is

called ?cluster programs.? This is when classes for the deaf or hard of