Hearing Impairment
Students with hearing impairment may present the following concerns:
- Poor or limited responses to environmental sound and external stimulation.
- Looking attentively and intensively at the presenter’s face and mouth when listening.
- Misunderstanding of verbal exchangers and frequent repetition required when following rapid interaction.
- Severe language and articulation problems in learning.
Deaf, hearing impairment (HI) and hard of hearing refer to those who have none to some hearing, are able or unable to use it for speech and language development, as well as communication purposes. While the speech sounds range between 60-8,000 Hz, the degree of hearing loss can be classified into five levels.
- Mild (26-40 dB): difficult to identify soft sound such as whispering
- Moderate (41-55 dB): unable to hear clearly what others are saying during conversation
- Moderately severe (56-70 dB): unable to clearly hear loud noises such as telephone ring
- Sever (71-90 dB): can only hear very loud noises and sounds such as shouting
- Profound (over 90 dB): difficult to perceive any sound