4th Grade Hearing Lesson 3Hearing Impairments

Lets Read our Student Issues, Page 6“Supersonic Ears”

• The special sense of hearing that bats use is called echolocation

• Dolphins and whales also use echolocation, but the sounds they make are much lower than the high-pitched sounds that bats make

• Sea lions and seals are two other mammals that use echolocation

• Have you ever seen a dolphin in an aquarium or a show that had its eyes covered and yet could still find an object in the water?

• The dolphin was using its sense of echolocation do this!

• Of course, humans do not have the ability to use echolocation to hear, but our hearing is still very important to us.

• In fact – many states (including New Jersey) require students to have regular hearing tests

Suppose a small child is entering kindergarten. He has a hearing problem, or what we call a “hearing

impairment,” but no one has yet discovered it. What problems might he have because of his hearing

impairment?

• Feel left out because he can’t hear conversations• Feel shy or insecure because of his problem• Feel stupid when the problem is that he simply can’t hear what the teacher is saying• Not learning as many new words as others in the class• Have problems making friends at school

All hearing impairments are not the same. Some people with a hearing problem can hear more than others. Hearing problems

can be caused by many different things.

• Some people are only hearing impaired in one ear.• Some people hear sounds, but are unable to make sense of

them. For example, the sounds might be like static that you hear on your radio.

• Some people are born with a hearing impairment. Some acquire a hearing impairment from an injury or a disease.

• Some people are deaf, having no hearing at all.• Some people's hearing becomes gradually worse as they get

older.

Different kinds of hearing loss

There are three different kinds of hearing loss. Let’s work together to name those hearing losses, their

causes, and their treatment.Impairment Cause Treatment

Conductive hearing loss

Perceptive hearing loss

Nerve or brain damage

Let’s see how we did…Impairment Cause Treatment

Conductive hearing loss Allergies, infections, fluid in ear, enlarged adenoids

Medicine, tubes surgery

Perceptive hearing loss Something wrong in Organ of Corti, pregnant mother is sick, drugs, constant loud noise

Hearing aid in some cases

Nerve or brain damage Tumor or stroke No treatment

• People with normal hearing communicate with each other by speaking, listening, and watching each other’s facial expressions and body movements.

• Do you know of any special ways in which people with learning impairments communicate with others?

• Reading lips• Sign Language

Sign Language

• There are different kinds of sign

language

• In American Sign Language –

ASL – a person uses gestures to

express ideas, rather than

specific words.

• Words and names that can not

be expressed in ASL are often

spelled out using the American

manual alphabet, or the finger

alphabet.

• In this alphabet, finger positions

stand for letters of the alphabet

Can you use American Sign Language to Spell Your Name?