Children with Hearing or Visual Challenges
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Conclusive data on the prevalence of hearing loss among children is difficult to obtain for a number of reasons. One reason is that not every country has newborn hearing testing in place. For countries that do, there is also difficulty in tracking parent follow through from failed newborn screenings. Data collected of school age children in the U.S. indicates that 1.2%, or about 70,767 school children were receiving IDEA special education services for hearing loss in 2010. Again, this number is not fully reflective of even U.S. prevalence since not every child with hearing loss is enrolled in a public school, or receiving special education services.
Hearing loss is children is caused by many factors. According to the CDC data, 50-60% of hearing loss in children is genetically linked. Hearing loss in children is characterized as either syndromatic, meaning it is accompanied as part of a genetic syndrome that has various anomalies, or non-syndromatic. Syndromatic hearing loss occurs in about 20% of genetic hearing loss (examples are Down Syndrome, Usher Syndrome). Non-syndromatic hearing loss can be caused by a variety of things including being traced genetically through families. Other high risks for hearing loss occur with infections during pregnancy, infant infections, low birth weight, developmental or intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism. There are four types of hearing loss, but they can exist in combination and can be bilateral or unilateral, and can vary in the severity. · Sensorineural Hearing Loss – permanent, problem with sound in the inner ear and/or auditory nerve · Conductive Hearing Loss – sound has a blockage through the outer or middle ear – can sometimes be treated with medications or surgery · Mixed Hearing Loss – a combination of sensorineural and conductive loss · Auditory Neuropathy – sound enters ear normally but there is damage to inner ear and auditory nerve in processing sound Severity is rated as mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Children with hearing loss are as varied as you can imagine. Some children have very mild loss, others have profound loss or are completely deaf. Options for management depend on the type and severity of the hearing loss. Parents may opt for hearing aids for children with mild to severe hearing loss. Severe to profound loss may also have the option of a cochlear implant or BAHA. With either of these options the family may choose to use speech, or sign language, or a combination of both. Families with deaf children may also choose to try and engage both speech or sign language or a combination of both. It all depends on the individual child and the family. All choices should be respected. Just because a child has hearing loss does not mean that the family or child should be pressured to learn one way exclusively. Some Hearing Aid Tips from
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Blind and Low Vision
Visual impairment is defined as being when a person’s vision cannot be corrected to a certain level even with corrective lenses. This occurs more often in adults than in children. Children with visual impairments are also much more likely to have a co-occurring developmental disability. In fact, according to CDC data, about two-thirds of children have additional challenges accompanying their visual impairment. Visual impairments, or blindness, can be genetic, the result of other conditions and disease processes, or injuries from accidents.
Treatment and management of visual challenges depends on the severity of the visual loss. Please review the following additional resources to access information more specific to the situation you are researching: CDC Kid's Quest: Vision Impairment American Foundation for the Blind American Council of the Blind Blind Children's Center National Eye Institute WHO Visual Impairment and Blindness Lighthouse Guild Vision & Health Project Ideal: Informing and Designing Education for All Learners - Visual Impairments 
Child with Cochlear Implant
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For more information please explore the following resources:
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
NIDCD/NIH - More details about all kinds of hearing loss, hearing aids, cochlear implants and more….
Hearing Like Me
CDC - Hearing Loss
Alexander Graham Bell Association
American Society for Deaf Children
Council on Education of the Deaf
My Baby’s Hearing
National Association of the Deaf
US Dept of Education – Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
American Academy of Pediatrics Newborn Hearing and Screening
American Speech Language Hearing Association
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
NIDCD/NIH - More details about all kinds of hearing loss, hearing aids, cochlear implants and more….
Hearing Like Me
CDC - Hearing Loss
Alexander Graham Bell Association
American Society for Deaf Children
Council on Education of the Deaf
My Baby’s Hearing
National Association of the Deaf
US Dept of Education – Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
American Academy of Pediatrics Newborn Hearing and Screening
American Speech Language Hearing Association
References
"Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing." Alexander Graham Bell. 2017. http://www.agbell.org/.
American Council of the Blind. 2017. http://acb.org/.
American Foundation for the Blind. 2017. http://www.afb.org/default.aspx.
American Society for Deaf Children. 2017. http://deafchildren.org/.
Blind Children's Center. 2017. http://www.blindchildrenscenter.org/.
"Early Hearing Detection and Intervention." American Academy of Pediatrics. 2017. https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/PEHDIC/Pages/Early-Hearing-Detection-and-Intervention.aspx.
Hands and Voices: Deaf Education. 2017. http://www.deafed.net/.
"Hearing Loss in Children." CDC. 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/index.html.
https://nei.nih.gov/. 2017. https://nei.nih.gov/.
"Kids Quest: Vision Loss." CDC. 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/kids/vision.html.
Lighthouse Guild Vision and Health. 2017. http://www.lighthouseguild.org/.
My Baby's Hearing. 2017. https://www.babyhearing.org/.
National Association of the Deaf. 2017. https://www.nad.org/.
"National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders." NIH. 2017. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/.
"NIDCD: Hearing, Ear Infections, and Deafness." NIH. 2017. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing-ear-infections-deafness.
"Teaching Others About Your Hard-of-Hearing Child." Hearing Like Me. 2017. https://www.hearinglikeme.com/teaching-others-about-your-hard-of-hearing-child/.
"The Prevalence of Incidence of Hearing Loss in Children." American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2017. http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Prevalence-and-Incidence-of-Hearing-Loss-in-Children/.
US Department of Education Rehabilitative Services. 2017. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/rsa/index.html.
"Visual Impairment." World Health Organization. 2017. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/.
"Visual Impairments." Project IDEAL: Informing and Designing Education for All Learners. 2017. http://www.projectidealonline.org/v/visual-impairments/.
"Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing." Alexander Graham Bell. 2017. http://www.agbell.org/.
American Council of the Blind. 2017. http://acb.org/.
American Foundation for the Blind. 2017. http://www.afb.org/default.aspx.
American Society for Deaf Children. 2017. http://deafchildren.org/.
Blind Children's Center. 2017. http://www.blindchildrenscenter.org/.
"Early Hearing Detection and Intervention." American Academy of Pediatrics. 2017. https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/PEHDIC/Pages/Early-Hearing-Detection-and-Intervention.aspx.
Hands and Voices: Deaf Education. 2017. http://www.deafed.net/.
"Hearing Loss in Children." CDC. 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/index.html.
https://nei.nih.gov/. 2017. https://nei.nih.gov/.
"Kids Quest: Vision Loss." CDC. 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/kids/vision.html.
Lighthouse Guild Vision and Health. 2017. http://www.lighthouseguild.org/.
My Baby's Hearing. 2017. https://www.babyhearing.org/.
National Association of the Deaf. 2017. https://www.nad.org/.
"National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders." NIH. 2017. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/.
"NIDCD: Hearing, Ear Infections, and Deafness." NIH. 2017. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing-ear-infections-deafness.
"Teaching Others About Your Hard-of-Hearing Child." Hearing Like Me. 2017. https://www.hearinglikeme.com/teaching-others-about-your-hard-of-hearing-child/.
"The Prevalence of Incidence of Hearing Loss in Children." American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2017. http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Prevalence-and-Incidence-of-Hearing-Loss-in-Children/.
US Department of Education Rehabilitative Services. 2017. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/rsa/index.html.
"Visual Impairment." World Health Organization. 2017. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/.
"Visual Impairments." Project IDEAL: Informing and Designing Education for All Learners. 2017. http://www.projectidealonline.org/v/visual-impairments/.
This web page was designed by Marcy Steffy, May 2017.
To read more about Marcy's journey as a special needs parent click on the contributor's blog entitled You Will Never Be The Same.
To read more about Marcy's journey as a special needs parent click on the contributor's blog entitled You Will Never Be The Same.