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Understanding Deafness

Upon your loved one’s diagnosis, it is important to seek more information on their disability, its implications, and available interventions. This can help you plan and care for them.

  Key Points

  • Deafness is the total or partial inability to hear sounds in one or both ears.
  • It may be present at birth or acquired later in life. Tracking developmental milestones and observing signs of deafness will alert you to your loved one’s needs.
  • Before meeting the doctor or audiologist, prepare the relevant information and questions.

Deafness is the partial or complete inability to hear sounds in one or both ears. There are different types (Conductive, Sensorineural, Mixed) and levels of hearing loss (Mild, Moderate, Severe, Profound)1.

It can occur at all ages due to genetic causes, external factors (e.g., accident or prolonged exposure to loud noises) or degenerations. Singapore’s Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programme detects hearing loss as early as at birth.

Characteristics of hearing loss

Missing hearing-related developmental milestones can signal deafness in young children. These milestones, which can be found in your loved one’s health booklet, include:

  • “Jumping” at sudden loud noises (newborn infants) 
  • Recognising parents’ voices (at three months) 
  • Turning eyes or head toward a sound (at six months) 
  • Imitating sounds and saying a few words like “Mama” or “bye-bye” (at 12 months) 

For older children and adults, signs of deafness to look out for include:

  • Having difficulty understanding speech in different environments
  • Feeling that one may be able to hear but not understand
  • Hearing ringing or buzzing in ears (tinnitus)
  • Facing difficulty hearing sounds of certain frequencies (e.g., men’s voices may be harder to hear than women’s and children’s)

If you observe any of these signs in your loved one, do consult doctors or audiologists as soon as possible for an assessment. They can evaluate the extent of your loved one’s hearing loss, diagnose the causes, and identify interventions to help them.

Communicating with the doctor or audiologist

To better understand your loved one’s needs, here is what you can prepare before meeting the doctor or audiologist:

Prepare information2
  1. Observations of your loved one’s atypical behaviour, and your concerns about how deafness affects their daily life.
  2. Your loved one’s health issues and history
  3. Whether your loved one has experienced head trauma or loud noises 
  4. History of deafness in your family (if any) 

Questions you can ask

  1. How severe is the hearing loss?2 Are one or both ears affected?
  2. Is the hearing loss permanent? What caused it?
  3. How will the condition develop in the future? 
  4. What are the interventions available? What is the purpose of each intervention? What is required from you and your loved one? How will progress be tracked?
  5. Does your loved one need more testing? How often should they be tested? 

Tip: Clarify unfamiliar, technical terms with the doctor.

 Resources

Learn All You Need to Know About Deafness

Footnotes:

1https://sadeaf.org.sg/about-deafness/introduction/

2https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/hearing-loss-questions#1

  Key Points

  • There are various types of support available for persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, such as early intervention and assistive technology.

Before selecting an intervention for your loved one, you can seek professional advice on the treatment options and their costs, side effects and implications. Learn more about these interventions, including how assistive technology (AT) can help your loved one.

Depending on your loved one’s needs and abilities, they can enrol in either a Special Education (SPED) school or mainstream primary school from the age of seven. Currently, there are two SPED schools dedicated to children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (Canossian School and Lighthouse School) as well as mainstream schools which adopt either the “signing approach” (using sign language) or the “oral approach” (using lip-reading) in their curriculum.

Early intervention programmes (such as the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) or the Inclusive Support Programme (InSP) can help in maximising your loved one’s developmental growth potential while minimising the development of secondary disabilities. These programmes might be recommended by your doctor or an early childhood professional.

Interventions may also be costly, so it is important to plan your finances or seek financial aid before making a decision. 

Actions to take

  Key Points

  • It is important to understand your loved one’s experience, learn the connection between hearing and speech, and establish a communication method with your loved one.
  • There are various organisations dedicated to supporting individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing such as SADeaf, TOUCH Silent Club and Equal Dreams.

Learning the relationship between hearing and speech can help you understand why your loved one speaks in a certain way and enables you to explain their needs to professionals where necessary. For example, young children who are unable to hear high-frequency sounds will miss some consonants in speech. This may affect their pronunciation of words with these consonants.

To determine the best communication method for your loved one, consult Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists or audiologists, and find out more about helpful interventions (e.g. hearing aids and therapy). Communicating in more than one way with your loved one can aid better understanding. Besides sign language, you can consider other communication methods such as writing and typing.

Find out how your loved one can protect their residual hearing, (e.g., exposure to loud noise) to prevent your loved one's condition from worsening, and learn more about the treatments available.

You can approach the following organisations for additional support:

  1. Equal Dreams
  2. Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf)
  3. TOUCH Silent Club by TOUCH Community Services

Supporting your loved one in their building of functional skills such as social skills, community living and self-care will enable them to live more independently.

Actions to take

  • Explore different communication methods (e.g., sign language, typing or writing a message) with your loved one.
  • You may seek additional support from organisations which specialise in serving persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Footnotes:

1https://www.thoughtco.com/functional-skills-for-students-independence-3110835 and
https://autismspectrumnews.org/functional-skills-training-for-individuals-with-autism-spectrum-disorders/

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