When an individual's vision deteriorates to blindness, his or her ability to read speech from the lips is lost. Children born with US3 have normal hearing and normal to near-normal balance. Hearing worsens over time. Children develop noticeable hearing problems by their teenage years and usually become deaf by mid to late adulthood. Retinitis pigmentosa in the form of night blindness usually begins sometime during puberty.
Blind spots appear by the late teenage years to early adulthood.
By mid adulthood, the individual is usually blind. Therefore, most people who have retinitis pigmentosa and hearing loss probably have US1 or US2. Early diagnosis is important in order to begin special educational training programs to help the individual deal with the combined hearing and vision difficulties. The best treatment involves early identification in order to begin educational programs. The exact nature of these educational programs will depend on the severity of the hearing and vision impairments as well as the age and abilities of the individual.