Hellen Keller says “Blindness cuts you off from things. Deafness cuts you off from people”. This is very true as hearing affects the ability to communicate and learn. Thus hearing impairment affects every aspect of a child’s life – familial, social, psychological, emotional and above all educational. Hearing impairment may occur in the outer, middle, inner ear or in the auditory nerve. Hearing loss may range from the mildest to the most profound in either or both ears.

Hearing Loss is of Two types:

• Conductive: Resulting from malfunction in the outer or middle ear. This can often be corrected medically or surgically.
• Sensory–neural loss: This results due to malfunction in the inner ear or in the auditory nerve.

Causes of deafness
Before birth

• Hereditary causes.
• Con–sanguinous marriages.
• RH or blood group incompatibility.
• High intake of antibiotic or ototoxic drugs.
• Exposure to X–Rays.

During birth

• Instrumental delivery.
• Birth anoxia.
• Birth weight less than 1200 gms.

After birth

• Jaundice
• High fever
• Measles–mumps–rubella
• Convulsions
• Heavy intake of antibiotics
• Accidents
• Meningitis–otosclerosis

Age of onset could be

• Prelingual–prior to learning spoken language.
• Post lingual–after learning spoken language i.e. after 2 to 3 years.

A deaf child is not dumb
Hearing children learn to speak by imitating sounds that they hear and by enjoying the sounds that they make i.e. babbling, cooing etc. A deaf child has to be taught speech which is a very challenging task for the pupil and the teacher. Deaf children vary in intelligence like hearing children. The following points should be considered.

• A deaf child has to be helped to hear better by giving him amplification and conditioning his residual hearing.
• Visual supplement must be offered through lip–reading and manual signs.

To conclude, a deaf child is a personality striving to communicate his thoughts and feelings and trying to understand yours. By knowing and appreciating his problems you can help a deaf child by treating him more patiently and naturally.

Indian red cross society’s red cross school for the deaf
The Poona District Branch of the Indian Red Cross Society was established in the year 1921. Since then it has grown and multiplied its welfare activities over the years. It has undertaken a number of projects for the amelioration of suffering humanity and in order to achieve the objects effectively, the society has set up four units as follows:

• Urban and rural welfare.
• Blood bank.
• Junior red cross.
• Red cross school for the deaf.