HEARING IMPAIRMENT

Definition: This is one of the categories that has most changed under the most recent changes to special education law. Once including all levels of hearing loss, it is now broken up into three areas. The first, hearing impairment is a group in which there is an impairment in hearing that affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness, which is a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in understanding speech.

Causes: The most common cause of hearing loss in children is an infection of the middle ear called otitis media. These ear infections are much more common on the reservations than in the U.S. as a whole. Hearing loss can also be caused by noise, drugs and toxins. Noise-induced hearing loss is most common among adults who worked around heavy machinery or other loud noises for much of their careers.