Hearing impairment

A hearing impairment is a decrease in one's ability to hear (i.e. perceive auditory information). While some cases of hearing loss are reversible with medical treatment, many lead to a permanent disability (often called deafness).

Medical treatments

Approaches

In addition to hearing aids there exist cochlear implants of increasing complexity and effectiveness. These are useful in treating the mild to profound hearing impairment when the onset follows the acquisitions of language and in some cases in children whose hearing loss came before language was acquired. Recent research shows variations in effacacy but some promising studieshttp://www.cid.wustl.edu/research/PPR/Geers/Geersppr.htm show that if implanted at a very young age, some profoundly impaired children can acquire effective hearing and speech.

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Views of treatments

There is controversy in the culturally deaf community as to whether cochlear implants address wellness concerns, the overall health and psycho-emotional well-being of prelingually deaf children at all.

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