Believe or Not

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Hearing loss does not only mean the inability to hear loudly enough. Some people may have great difficulty in hearing within a specific and narrow frequency region. This may result in a ‘discrimination loss’; whereby one can hear speech but not understand speech.

If not detected and treated in time, hearing loss in a child can have a very adverse effect on the child’ language development and learning ability.

With children as well as adults, untreated hearing loss can have broad reaching effects. Hearing problems often make it difficult to ‘keep up’; which can lead to a sense of isolation, fatigue and loneliness. As hearing loss is often associated with old age – and frequently interpreted as a lack of intelligence – it may affect life at school and work, as well as social interaction and general quality of life. It is therefore important to do something about hearing problems as soon as possible.

The ability to communicate is likely to be affected when a person has hearing difficulties. Communication is a basic need for all of us, so it is important to remember that good communication requires the efforts of at least two people. It is consequently very important that you play your part in ensuring optimum communication when you are together with hearing impaired people.