Hearing loss is not just an ailment of old age. It can strike at any time and any age, even childhood.

Here are some general guidelines regarding the incidence of hearing loss:

• 3 in 10 people (over age 60) have hearing loss
• 1 in 6 baby boomers (41-59) have hearing loss
• 1 in 14 Generation Xers (ages 29-40) or 14.6% have hearing problems
• At least 1.4 million children (18 or younger) have hearing problems
• It is estimated that 3 in 1,000 infants are born with serious to profound hearing loss

One-third of hearing loss is preventable with proper hearing protection.

What you can do to protect your hearing:

• If you work in an at-risk occupation, check with your employer to make sure you have adequately protected your hearing, according to OSHA regulations.
• Limit exposure time to noisy activities.
• Wear hearing protections, such as foam or silicone plugs or muffs, when using loud equipment, such as a lawn mower, power saw or leaf blower.
• At home, turn down the volume on the television, radio, stereo and walkman.
• Reduce the number of noisy appliances running at the same time in your personal environment.
• Avoid medications that can be dangerous to your hearing. Be sure to ask your physician about possible effects on your hearing.

The most important signs of hearing loss in children are delayed development or failure of spoken language.

Age: Communication Behavior

5 months: Turn to source of moderate and soft sounds.

6 months: Recognize familiar voices and engage in vocal play with parents.

9 months: Demonstrate understanding of simple words.

10 months: Babbles by stringing multiple, single-syllable speech sounds together.

12 months: One or more real, recognizable spoken words emerge.

18 months: Understands simple phrases, retrieves, places or manipulates familiar objects on spoken requests; points to body parts on request; spoken vocabulary of 20 -50 words and short phrases.

24 months: Spoken vocabulary 200-300 words; speaks in simple sentences; most speech is understandable to adults not with the toddler on a daily basis; sits and listens to read-aloud story books.

3-5 years: Uses spoken language constantly to express wants, reflect emotions, convey information and ask questions. Understands nearly all that is said. Vocabulary grows rapidly; 1000-2000 words; produces complex and meaningful sentences. All speech sounds are clear and understandable by 5 years.

Noise is one of the most common causes of hearing loss, one of the most common occupational illnesses in the United States.

• 10 million Americans have already suffered irreversible hearing damage from noise.
• 30 million are exposed to dangerous noise levels each day.
• The effects of noise on hearing are often underestimated because the damage takes place so gradually.

The signs of hearing loss can be subtle and emerge slowly, or they can be significant and come on suddenly.

You might have hearing loss if you…

Socially

• Require frequent repetition.
• Have difficulty following conversations involving more than 2 people
• Think that other people sound muffled or like they are mumbling
• Have difficulty hearing in noisy situations, like restaurants
• Have trouble hearing children and women
• Have your TV or radio turned up to a high volume
• Answer or respond inappropriately in conversations
• Have ringing in your ears
• Read lips or more intently watch people’s faces when they speak with you
  

Emotionally

• Feel stressed out or nervous about trying to hear and understand what others are saying
• Feel annoyed at other people because you cannot hear or understand them
• Feel embarrassed meeting new people or from misunderstanding what others are saying
• Withdraw from social situations that you once enjoyed because of difficulty hearing
  

Medically

• Have a family history of hearing loss
• Take medications that can harm the hearing system (ototoxic drugs)
• Have diabetes, heart, circulation or thyroid problems
• Have been exposed to very loud sounds over a long period or single exposure to explosive noise

Early treatment for hearing loss has the potential to literally transform lives.

People with hearing loss often delay a decision to get hearing help when in fact hearing loss treatment has shown to improve:

• Earning power
• Communication in relationships
• Intimacy and warmth in family relationships
• Ease in communication
• Emotional stability
• Sense of control over life events
• Perception of mental functioning
• Physical health
• Group social participation
  

Thank you to the Better Hearing Institute for permitting us to reprint this valuable information. For more information about hearing, visit the Institute’s website at www.betterhearing.org to download a free copy of “Your Guide to Better Hearing.”

Today, 1 in 150 individuals is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined.

Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person's lifetime. It is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It occurs in all racial, ethnic and social groups, and it is four times more likely to strike boys than girls. Autism impairs a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associated with rigid routines and repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following very specific routines. Symptoms can range from very mild to quite severe.

If your baby shows any of these signs, please ask your pediatrician or family practitioner for an immediate evaluation:

• No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter
• No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter
• No babbling by 12 months
• No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching or waving by 12 months
• No words by 16 months
• No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months
• Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age
  

*This information has been provided by First Signs, Inc. ©2001-2005. Reprinted with permission. For more information about recognizing the early signs of developmental and behavioral disorders, please visit www.firstsigns.org or the Centers for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov/actearly.

Sign Language is NOT universally the same. Most countries have their own Sign Language OR share a given Sign Language with a different dialect.

• Sign Language is NOT JUST an alphabet where you have to sign each letter of the word you are trying to communicate. Sign Language is a complete language with a sign representing the majority of words found in written English. The Sign Language Alphabet can serves as a great starting point to learn Sign Language.
• There are between 250,000-500,000 American Sign Language (ASL) users in USA & Canada. Most of them use ASL as their primary language.
• ASL is recognized as foreign language for school credit in 35 states.
• Babies CAN communicate physically 6-8 months prior to communicating verbally, and research shows signing with hearing babies enhances cognitive development.
• Sign Language does NOT ONLY consist of signs. To communicate effectively one uses:
  
• Facial expression
• Body movement or (Body Language)
• Hand shape
• Hand position
• Hand movement
• Gestures

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) requires the provision of auxiliary aids and services, such as qualified sign language interpreters.

An interpreter may be used any time communication is occurring between people who do not share the same language. Deaf, Deaf-blind, and hard of hearing people may not have access to information if it is presented in English, either verbally or in writing. Some simple communications (for example, between a Deaf customer and a clerk in a store) can be done through written notes or gestures, but any time important content is being communicated, having an interpreter present safeguards the participants by ensuring that correct information is accessible to both parties.

The ADA states that all public and private agencies that provide services to the general public, and all employers with 15 or more employees, must be accessible. This means if your agency, service or business is accessible to people without disabilities, it must be accessible to people with disabilities. Additionally, companies with 15 or more employees must follow fair hiring and employment practices when considering candidates with disabilities Therefore, it is the agency, service or business which is responsible for payment of interpreting services.