Why are people born deaf?
Congenital deafness is a term used to describe the condition of infants born without the ability to hear. Potential causes for this condition include both genetic factors and non-genetic factors such as illness, toxin exposure and infection.GeneticsGenetics accounts for more than 50 percent of all congenital hearing loss, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Known factors include dominant and recessive hearing loss traits, as well as sex chromosome-related hearing loss traits.Genetic FactorsDeaf parents who carry a dominant gene for deafness can pass on genetically dominant hearing loss to their children, reports the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
