Normal
hearing for children range from 0-20dB in
all frequencies. Even minimal hearing loss
of 25 – 30 dB is educationally significant.
This is because a youngster with mild bilateral
hearing loss may miss 20% to 30% of vital
speech information if un-amplified.
Many consonant sounds are heard
inconsistently (e.g. The word Cup, Cat, Calf,
may all be perceived as Ca) and faint distant
speech is difficult to understand. Thus when
speech sounds (m, db, n, ng, ch, sh, ph) are
missed entirely or not heard distinctly or
are heard differently from one time to another,
the usual learning strategies become disorganised
and ineffective. |
