What kind of problems could such a slight hearing loss cause for children in classrooms?
Children with minimal hearing losses experience problems in the following areas: hearing faint or distant speech (more than 25% of classroom instruction could be missed); hearing subtle conversational cues that could cause a child to react inappropriately; following fast-paced verbal exchanges; and hearing the fine word-sound distinctions that denote plurality, tense, possessives, etc. In addition, a child with a minimal hearing loss may appear immature and become more fatigued than normal-hearing classmates because of the extra effort needed to hear. In fact, when teachers or parents notice attention and behavior problems, they often do not even consider hearing loss as the source of a child’s problems.
