deafness

Deafness, deafness



If both ears are affected by deafness before the child has acquired their mother tongue, normal language acquisition is not possible. In total deafness, therefore, early treatment and promotion of the affected children is important. On the other hand, if a child is unilaterally deaf, their language development is not impaired.

Causes of deafness or deafness include various types of damage, both innate and later acquired, for example:

    hereditary abnormalities of the middle ear, inner ear and / or auditory nerve in the ear
    Harmful effects during pregnancy (for example certain medications, alcohol, nicotine or infections such as rubella)
    Postnatal diseases (e.g., meningitis, mumps, measles, chronic otitis media)

The treatment of deafness depends on the extent of the hearing impairment: a one-sided hearing loss does not treat many people - in contrast to total deafness - not at all. Even a person who is deaf on one side can benefit from a treatment: those who are deaf in one ear can not detect either the direction or the distance of a sound source - this also makes it difficult to hide background noise. The consequences of one-sided deafness therefore include school problems or a risk in road traffic.

In case of unilateral and bilateral deafness (under certain conditions), an inner ear prosthesis (so-called cochlear implant) is recommended to restore the hearing. Inserting the cochlear implant into the ear requires surgery (usually under general anesthesia). If there is deafness from birth, early implantation of the inner ear prosthesis (between the second and the fourth year of age) is advisable.

Especially after bilateral deafness rehabilitation is crucial after implantation: Only intensive listening and speaking training as well as high motivation lead to good results. In addition to these measures, it is advisable in congenital or early acquired deafness to make the sign language - a visual language with its own grammar - an integral part of the early intervention: Get deaf children as early as possible (preferably from birth) the chance to acquire the sign language , this can also facilitate the learning of the spoken language.




Deafness, Deafness: What is it?



Deafness is a hearing loss that can be unilateral or bilateral. If only one ear is deaf, the ability to detect the direction and distance of a sound source is impaired. If both ears are deaf, there is deafness: then noises and sounds are no longer perceptible.

In deafness, the medical definition refers only to hearing. Doctors distinguish between absolute and practical deafness:

    Absolute deafness means a hearing loss of more than 60 decibels (dB) in the range between 125 and 250 hertz (Hz) and more than 100 dB in the rest of the frequency range.
    Practical deafness means hearing loss is between 85 and 100 dB. This so-called residual hearing or deafness-limiting deafness still allows a perception of individual sounds or noises (so-called Hörreste).

In addition, the Deaf community defines deafness over linguistic and cultural identities: the deaf are the hearing-impaired who prefer to communicate in sign language and see themselves as part of this language community and its culture. Even those who are not affected by deafness, but who are fluent in sign language, can understand themselves as a member of this language community and culture.

A deafness on both sides can exist at birth (congenital deafness or deafness) or develop during the course of life (acquired deafness). Depending on when the hearing is lost, the following forms should be distinguished:

    Prelingual Deafness: Those affected are already deaf before they can develop a language.
    Post-lingual deafness: Bilateral deafness occurs only after speech development has taken place.

This subdivision is important in terms of the consequences that bilateral deafness can have on the normal language acquisition of a child:

    If a hearing loss makes a child deaf on both ears even before the age of seven, this is usually without any countermeasures connected with the complete loss of the previously acquired vocabulary.
    Deafness occurs only after the age of seven, the vocabulary is preserved.

On the other hand, early one-sided deafness does not affect the child's speech development.

frequency

In the Federal Republic of Germany about 80,000 people are affected by bilateral deafness or deafness, which corresponds to a frequency of about 0.1 percent. Every year about 600 to 800 children are born deaf in Germany.

Historical

Since the 17th century, the connections between hearing and speech are known - and thus the possible consequences of deafness or deafness. This realization was the prerequisite for creating schools for the deaf. The founding of the first deaf school took place in Germany as a deaf and dumb hospital in 1788 in Berlin