ABSTRACT
Hearing loss is a major handicap, not chiefly because of its direct effect of cutting the individual off from the world of sound around him, but for the indirect effect of the problems encountered by the deaf child in learning language and the consequences of this upon other areas of development. Sound is conducted through the air into the outer ear reaching the eardrum, which vibrates in response to sound; these vibrations are transmitted via the ossicles to the inner-ear fluids. Sensori-neural deafness can be present from birth or acquired during the course of development. The majority of conductive-hearing problems, however, are located in the middle ear. Congenital conductive deafness is rare, but can be sustained in the womb during the critical time when the ear is developing, and very occasionally the cause is genetic. Conductive losses tend to be of a lesser degree than sensori-neural losses and as such, may not be picked up.
