Good hearing is important for development of language and speech, considerable hearing loss in early childhood will interfere with proper speech and the child may not be able to talk (deaf – mute).
Causes of Deafness in children
(A) Conductive:
Mainly congenital, traumatic and inflammatory lesions e.g:
- Ear infections (Otitis media).
- Ototoxic (damaging the auditory system) drugs.
- Chicken pox.
- Measles.
- Mumps.
- Head injury.
(B) Perceptive: mainly congenital, traumatic and inflammatory lesions.
Most common causes are mumps, measles, and meningitis.
How can we know that the child has suffers deafness?
Usually the child makes no reactions to loud noise and doesn't respond to mother's voice, and he makes simple sounds that taper off.
In addition, the child suffers symptoms of the disease that caused deafness e.g Otitis media, the child pulls an ears or rubs it, or cries continously without apparent reason and he may have fever.