My Experience With Hearing Loss

Hearing loss continues to linger in the elderly population of today’s society. Yet, the onset of hearing loss can occur at any age and at any point in

Now getting older, I see the effects that hearing loss has had on me. For one, I will admit to having the worst vocabulary skills (thank goodness for a dictionary and thesaurus). For two, I get tongue twisted a lot and do not

I chose the task of being deaf for about 4 hours which I thought may be the easer and safest option for me but I was quickly surprised that being able to hear contributes to so many things in my life. For example not being able to hear my kids call me when they say mom was sad because a mother will always know there child’s voice even if she’s in the middle of Time Square on New Year’s. Therefore not being able to come to their aid quickly was my biggest challenge. I wasn’t able to laugh at the things that they were laughing at when we watched our family movie. I couldn’t do my job at work of answering my customer’s phone calls because I couldn’t hear. I was afraid to drive because I was scared that I wouldn’t hear

Living with hearing loss wasn’t always an enjoyable experience. Growing up, I gradually became more and more self-conscious of my hearing loss. Sometimes, I became so anxious that I kept asking people to repeat themselves just because I didn’t think I heard them correctly the first time. Most of the time, I simply needed to relax in order to comprehend what the other person was saying–I discovered later on that playing the piano and exercising allowed me to maintain my composure.

In order to gain a better understanding of the difficulties faced by people with hearing loss I wore ear plugs for an entire day in a variety of settings. The hearing loss simulation made relatively simple parts of my day much more difficult and really showed how much hearing loss can impact daily life. As discussed in class the shift from being “able-bodied to disabled”, was quite difficult to cope with.

Imagine waking up to your mom flashing the lights and stomping her feet on the floor. You can vaguely see her feet moving and feel the vibration running through the room but you can’t hear her feet hit the floor. This is because you are deaf.

There are many things that people in the hearing world take for granted every day, such as verbal communication, using a telephone or something as simple as the feeling you get when your favorite song comes on the radio. To a person that has been completely immersed in the deaf community, it may be easy to view the sense of sound as unnecessary. As a member of the haring community it would seem nearly impossible to live a day without sound. Cochlear implants are devices that help a person who is deaf gain hearing to some degree, and in some cases nearly full hearing. This new technology has become very controversial throughout both the hearing, and the deaf world.

Deafness or hard of hearing, is defined by the medical society as a disability, but those who are diagnosed with the disability think otherwise. They think of themselves as a community, embrace it as an identity, or a culture with their own language, sign language, and they believe their community is being threaten. They label themselves as a minority endangered of being wiped out because of one leading cause, cochlear implants. Those serious about their ideals of their community see cochlear implants as a threat, because cochlear implants are considered as cure. Countless number of controversies over cochlear implants have been brought up, but the Deaf community should see cochlear implants as gift for patients rather than an extreme threat.

Passages A & B have different views on what would work best for the Deaf people, but they both want want a positive outcome for the Deaf community. Passage A mainly talks about how the cochlear implants do not benefit deaf people and how the permanent effects from it can be a disadvantage for the implant patient in the deaf community. “Implanted children would "end up trapped between two worlds: they can't live the way hearing people can, and yet they won't have grown up in the deaf community, using ASL" (Zimmer 85)”. The author helps the reader understand the Deaf community rather then understand the medical view of cochlear implants.

Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in the United States, affecting nearly 35 million, or 1 in 9, Americans. Hearing aids is a necessity in the life of someone who is hard-of-hearing, if they choose to use them. Furthermore of the 35 million living with hearing loss only 25% of them actually use a hearing aid, this means that around 26 million are living with untreated hearing loss (Audicus, 2014). Most of the reasoning behind

Wearing earplugs for six hours has given me so much insight into what those who use hearing aids and cochlear implants experience. It has also given me a new appreciation for my ears. I did not realize how difficult it would be to attempt to communicate as I normally would with the earplugs in; however, it was frustrating, straining, and exhausting. I wore the earplugs in three different situations. The first setting was with my roommates at home, the second setting took place in a shopping trip to the mall, and the third setting in which I wore earplugs was a cell phone conversation with my mom. These experiences were trying, but ultimately gave me a better understanding and empathy for individuals who are hard of hearing; this exercise will

More than 70,000 deaf Americans have received cochlear implants since the FDA approved their use in 1985 for adults and for children in 1990 (ASHA Quick Facts 1). Since doctors externally implant the device and link it to the auditory nerve, a hearing-impaired child can detect noises slightly faster than adults who hear normally. Supporting this conclusion, findings from the University of Iowa’s otolaryngology department studies concluded that younger children tend to acclimate more easily, because most have not yet become accustomed to speaking with others. The results also revealed that the earlier the procedure occurs, the more benefit that is reaped over the long run (Cochlear Implant article, Aggen 1). In addition, this “early-action”, top-dollar implant proves to be one of the most cost-effective medical procedures, when one takes into consideration the cost required to address it later in life due to rising costs of the implants, or the lack of hearing takes a downturn. Nevertheless, cochlear implants do indeed provide a level of hearing previously deemed

When you look at someone that you have never met before, you don’t immediately assume that they are deaf, but so much of the population in the world are deaf. One in five hundred children in America are born without the ability to hear, and usually are born to parents that do have hearing. “Hearing loss in adults can either be inherited from your parents or acquired from illness, ototoxic (ear-damaging) drugs, exposure to loud noise, tumors, head injury, or the aging process. This loss may occur by itself or with tinnitus (ringing in the ears).” (ASHA). Fifteen percent of the american population over the of 18 have hearing problems that could last their entire life. This is some much of the population, and we don’t give it enough recognition.

Hearing loss is the most common physical disability in the whole wide world. In the United States alone, about 28 million people have some level of hearing impairment that interferes with their ability to understand normal speech and participate in conversations. Another 2 million cannot hear at all.

    Keenan’s hearing began to degenerate at the age of four. Fortunately, he had surgery as a young boy and received cochlear implants, which enable sound to be transferred to the hearing nerves and allow him to hear. Cochlear implants allow Keenan to experience most of the world’s natural sounds. When he takes them off, everything is completely silent. Although his implants enhance his life tremendously and provide him an opportunity to hear again, they