Hear
(Continued)
obedient. During recess, Dick stands
alone at the edge of the playground.
His playmates are frank: "Dick
never wants to do anything. Besides,
he's strange. When you talk to him
sometimes, he doesn't even answer."
Nobody suspects that Dick and
Jane behave as they do because they
are hard of hearing.
"Jane is just more preoccupied
than most children her age," her
teacher explains.
Dick's mother says, "He caught
'"measles, chicken pox, and scarlet
fever, one right after the other, when
he was in first grade. He had to stay
in bed for months and never seemed
to catch up in school. I know he's a
little difficult to manage at times,
but he'll outgrow it."
Among the 38 million youngsters
in classrooms across the nation there
are many Janes and Dicks who
suffer moderate, hard-to-detect
hearing losses. The American Public
Health Association estimates the
total to be at least 5 percent of all
school children between 5 and 17;
that would mean some two million
victims. Many won't receive the
attention they need, though, because
no one recognizes their trouble.
The real tragedy is that the
youngster with a moderate hearing
loss often could lead a normal,
healthy life. Modern medical science
has a number of ways it can help
the hard-of-hearing victim, especial
ly the young one. But the trouble
must be discovered first!
What often prevents detection is
that the youngster seems to get
along all right most of the time.
Actually, Jane, Dick, and the thou
sands of other children with the
same hearing handicap are like
swimmers trapped in water that's
too deep. They try desperately to
grasp a foothold of meaning in the
sea of words that engulfs them.
Occasionally they hear, but more
often they don't. They discover little
tricks like reading lips, guessing at
words they don't he.ar, watching
others who may be listening with
them but these dodges often fail.
Meanwhile, other children around
them hear readily, effortlessly. The
handicapped child, imprisoned in his
half-world of fragmentary sound,
becomes angry at them and at him
self, or he becomes confused and
frightened. So he becomes rebellious
like Dick, or apathetic like Jane.
"Some parents don't want to find
out that their child has a hearing
loss," says one specialist with years
of case work behind him. "A young
, couple came to me not long ago
with their four-year-old son; their
family doctor had insisted that they
consult a specialist. I tested the boy
on a device called the audiometer
and found he had a severe loss in
both ears. When I showed the father
the results of the tests, he refused
to believe them. He said the boy's
ability to hear the tones emitted by
the audiometer and his inability to
hear normal convei-sation were com
pletely unrelated. Fortunately, the
father changed his attitude later,
and his son's hearing is now much
improved."
In the majority of cases, reports
this specialist, parents don't have the
youngster's hearing tested because
they can't see anything unusual in
his behavior. "This is understand
able," he adds. "It's certainly not
unusual to find that Johnny doesn't
hear when you call him to dinner,
especially if he's watching television.
Often it takes an expert to differ
entiate between a child who's having
ear trouble and one who isn't."
A few years ago, Chicago's Board
of Education began giving
hearing tests regularly to all
grade-school children. Among the
first 250,000 youngsters checked,
5,000 were found to have losses
sufficient to require medical atten
tion. The parents weren't aware of
the existing deficiency in 54 percent
of these cases.
Unfortunately, only about a third
of our schools are giving such tests.
If your child's hearing is not
being checked in school, consult
your family doctor or pediatrician.
After examining your youngster,
he'll know whether a test is needed;
he'll also know where testing facili
ties are available in your community.
It is good practice to check a
youngster's hearing at least every
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three years. The initial test should
be given no later than the child's
fourth birthday, and earlier if pos
sible. Today, there are tests which
can detect hearing losses in infants
only six months old.
In addition to these periodic tests,
hearing should usually be checked
after the child has recovered from
such sicknesses as scarlet fever,
measles, chicken pox, pneumonia, -or
flu; for in each case the ears can be
damaged.
A hearing test and a good long
talk with the doctor are particularly
important if your child frequently
has colds, a running nose, or infected
ears. Any one of these conditions,
if allowed, to continue, may cause
serious loss of hearing. Today, a
number of antibiotics are available
that can do much to fight such in
fections, but to be effective they
must be administered in time.
Even moderate hearing losses are
not always curable, of course; some
times the sound-transmission mech
anism within the ear has been per
manently damaged. There are a
number of ways the child can com
pensate for this disability, however.
He can be fitted with a hearing aid,
for example, and there are classes
where he can learn to make maxi
mum use of the hearing ability he
does possess.
Just as important, through this
training he will meet others his own
age who can't hear well. In many
communities, besides attending
classes, these groups meet regularly
for picnics, dances, baseball, and
other recreation. Through this social
contact, each youngster loses the
feeling of aloneness that so often
makes him miserable.
But here again treatment does
most for the youngster whose hear
ing loss is discovered early. "It is
estimated that more than one-half
of all adult hearing impairments
could have been prevented by early
and adequate treatment in child
hood," reports the American Public
Health Association. That grim in
dictment of past negligence tells
better than anything else why hear
ing tests are so vital to the present
and future of every child!
(If you would like more informa
tion on detection of hearing losses
in children, write to the American
Hearing Society, 1800 H Si, N.W.,
Washington 6, D.C.)
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