DEAFNESS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 10356, 17 April 1930, Page 4

DEAFNESS.

RADIO’S AID FOB THE HARD OF HEARING. The fact that deaf folic can often hear through headphones sounds that they could not hear in ordinary conversation has caused scientists to ask whether deafness cannot be remedied in some such way as this. It is the same with the telephone. Many partly-deaf people are normal when listening and speaking over the telephone. About one person in six suffers from defective hearing. This is a startling discovery, but it is true. The number of deaf mutes, of course, is much smaller —not one in two thousand. The difference between one in two thousand one in six is made up of hundreds of thousands of people who are ‘hard of hearing.” In some cases the defect is so slight that the sufferers are not aware of the"*fact—just as a man can be colour blind without knowing it. It is almost impossible for anybody but a specialist to talk of remedies for deafness, for “deafness" is the symptom of a number of different ear complaints. There is middle ear deafness and nerve deafness, and these are but two main classifications. A great deal of deafness —perhaps even the majority of deafness —is, however, acquired, dr allowed to develop by neglect. Deafness often is a consequence of the diseases .of childhood —scarlet fever, measles, and meningitis; other diseases in adults and children may leave as a legacy the beginnings of deafness. Occasionally, too, deafness comes on for no apparent reason. It may go unnoticed until it has gone too far for treatment to be of value. The early detection of deafness in children—before anybody realises that the child is becoming “hard of hearing”—is becoming a more and more important part of school medical work. This is where radio begins to play its part. In some schools an audiometer is used. This Is an instrument that has the appearance of a wireless set. It is capable of giving out a scale of notes, all of which can be reduced in tone until they become inaudible to human ears. Headphones are attached to the audiometer and a pair given to each of the children whose hearing is to be tested. The children are invited to listen in and mark on exercise paper the number of each sound they hear, making no mark if they hear nothing. The audibility of the sounds is varied; sometimes a loud sound is given out, and at other times a very soft note. It is thus possible to • tell whether a child has normal hearing, and, if not, how far short of normal bearing he is. A parent who is watchful may be the first to detect signs of deafness In a child. Inattention, a certain inability to form words, and a way of tiring early, may all be signs that a child is hard of hearing. It is not to be assumed that a child is hard of hearing because he shows one or two of these signs, but if there is a persistent tendency in the same direction, it may be well to consult an ear specialist. Since much deafness is, in a technical sense, acquired, experimenters have reason to believe that the time is not far distant when it will be possible to “educate” patients to hear, or to educate the hard of hearing to hear normally. A great deal depends on the general health, on early treatment, and on relief from the strain that a deaf person cannot help feeling. Absolute silence in a soundproof room, followed by conversation with a person whose lips can be read, has been found a good kind of training. In a soundproof room the ears have rest and the patient is not worried—it should be remembered that even people who are called ‘very deaf’ do hear sounds as a kind of confused rumble. With the mind of the patient at rest, talk, perhaps with the aid of earphones, to a person whose lips.can be read will make the sufferer realise that it is not, after all, so difficult to hear, and when that optimism is in a patient, recovery is materially helped. The coming of the “talkies” was deplored by thousands of deaf people who had found interest and recreation in silent films, Put some cinemas now are providing headphones at the talkies for the hard-of-hearing.