Trends and Elements that Lead to Prevention of Mild Conductive Hearing Loss in Different Age Groups

Hearing loss often goes untreated and those who do not seek treatment, often live lives that are not as great and beautiful as they once were. There has been numerous studies that show how having a hearing loss can lower one’s quality of life. Regardless of the statistics, or the observations done on hearing loss, it is important to know that as the person who is not experiencing the hearing loss, it is difficult to grasp an understanding on the way it is affecting another’s life. Taking this into account, Dr. Darrow assigned us a task to go home and where earplugs for 4-6 hours. Wearing these earplugs gave us a bilateral mild conductive hearing loss (MCHL). Having this hearing loss gave us insight into what it is like to not be able to hear everything as we once could. To my surprise, simply wearing ear plugs drastically reduced my level of enjoyment of hearing everyday sounds. For example, the sound of coffee being made in the morning, the melodic guitar of my favorite band, the loud exhaust of my motorcycle and even that spark of excitement I get when I hear someone call my name. It was not until now that I realize having a mild conductive hearing loss can affect your life a lot! Previously, I was under the impression that living with this was no big deal. This experience made me wonder how having a mild conductive hearing loss not only affects adults, but children too.

The younger population are prone to getting ear infections, or as said in class, otitis media. Some of these children have recurring incidence of otitis media with effusion (fluid in the middle ear). This can cause a mild conductive hearing loss. Due to the hearing loss, their ability to learn and develop speech may be affected. According to a recent study done on the effects of otitis media with effusion (OME) on children, other secondary effects may be seen as well. Such as an increase in anxiety, depression and attention disorders (Gouma, Mallis, Daniilidis, Gouveris, Armenakis & Naxakis, 2010). Understanding these ramifications that can go along with a mild conductive hearing loss, can help me to provide better therapy for clients as an audiologist.

Prior to my short experience with a mild conductive hearing loss, I found myself trying to find the right time to put in the ear plugs. At this moment, the entire hearing loss experience was down scaled to a petty attempt at being hard of hearing. Certainly, if I had an actual hearing loss, I would not have the option as to whether or not I wanted to hear normal. Nonetheless, I chose a morning when I thought I would need my hearing enough to where I could gain from this an educational experience. When the ear plugs were put in I immediately spoke to my friend whose voice was now softer than before. I had to move closer to make sure I was not missing anything he was saying. This set the tone and gave me an idea on how the next 6 hours was going to be. That morning, I had to drive from Worcester to Athol. It is about an hour drive and without the radio, it can be monotonous. At first, I thought the radio was going to be hard to hear but to my surprise the sound quality was fair. I had the volume set louder than usual, but as mentioned in class, with a conductive hearing loss, the sound only needs to be amplified in order for it to be heard. Despite the decent sound quality, the music was not as enjoyable as it once was.

Finally, I reached my mom’s house and proceeded to tell her that I have a MCHL and she would have to get closer to me or talk a little bit louder. During the time that I spent with her, I noticed myself agreeing with her without understanding what she was saying. It was easier this way, rather than asking her to repeat herself. From this experience I learned that if I had a real hearing loss and did not ask people to repeat themselves on a daily basis, I could miss out on a lot of important conversations. Afterwards, I went out to the garage to work on my motorcycle. As I was doing this, my sister called my name. Apparently she had been calling it for a while and she did not know that I was wearing the ear plugs. She ended up yelling to my mom, to yell to me and then I finally looked up and saw she was calling my name. She seemed to be a little frustrated by this. It was a good example of how someone might react if they did not know another person was hard of hearing. This was about all the social interaction I had that morning but it was enough to know that if could not hear for the rest of my life, or even for a whole week, my social life would be affected unless I learned strategies to cope with these challenges.

While I was working on my motorcycle I had to start the engine and listen to see if it was running correctly. I quickly realized that with my MCHL, I could not hear well enough to decide if it was running good or not. I had to ask my mom what she thought, but that was not helpful. Eventually, I decided it was running okay. Consequently, there was still some doubt. If this uncertainty persisted and I was an actual mechanic, this could possibly affect my business and in turn, cause people to think less of my quality of work. This was a good example of how having a mild conductive hearing loss may affect one’s vocational life.

The effects of a mild conductive hearing loss on me was those of an adult, but similarly, it affects children’s social life, academics and emotional well-being. In a recent study done, there were two groups of children compared and given the Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire (CBCL). One group with otitis media with effusion (OME) and another that did not have any hearing deficits. The questionnaire stated that the group with frequent OME had more anxiety/depression related disorders. The questionnaire concluded they had more attention disorders as well; this was quite shocking to me. I would never have looked at a child, whom I had known had a hearing loss and thought, he/she has an anxiety/depression disorder. The patients that participated in this study ranged from ages 6-8. (Gouma, Mallis, Daniilidis, Gouveris, Armenakis & Naxakis, 2010)If problems with anxiety, depression and attention persisted, it could drastically affect their social pragmatic development, language skills and future careers. For these reasons, hearing loss needs to be treated as seriously as any other disorder.

Another study was done using 1528 pre-school aged children with a mean age of 4 years and 9 months. There were three test groups, one with normal hearing, another with fluctuating conductive hearing loss and one with bilateral moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss with the use of hearing aids. All of the children in the study were evaluated on their speech and language development. The results showed that the children with the fluctuating conductive hearing loss had a speech-language delay and the children with the sensorineural hearing loss had even more of a delay. There were some children with normal hearing that had a delay but it was less common. In conclusion, the study showed children with hearing loss show significantly lower speech and language functions. (Schönweiler, Ptok&Radu, 1998) Which suggests that hearing loss is an important factor to be considered when diagnosing a child with a speech-language disorder.

Leading back to my experience with a mild conductive hearing loss, it was educational and I learned that having a hearing loss can be limiting. It makes me wonder how difficult life is for those living with a severe or profound hearing loss. Even a moderate hearing loss would be much more difficult. I will take away a lot of things from this short experience. First of all, the most evident, someone with a hearing loss does not get to choose when or when they do not want to hear. Second, hearing loss can seriously affect social relations. Something as simple as talking your mom across the room can become frustrating. I learned that a hearing loss can affect what kind of job you have. A lot of jobs demand that you use hearing effectively. For example, something as simple as retail and not being able to communicate with the customers could affect ones quality of work. These are all issues that could be experienced as an adult, but as for children, they may experience many of the same things but their side effects may be more detrimental to their development. A child’s emotional state, social relations, academic success and speech and language development are some of the things that a hearing loss may affect. With all this being said, children or adult, when a hearing loss is found it should be treated and therapy should be given as needed.