Several characteristics are typical of most sensorineural hearing losses. The loss is permanent and cannot be surgically repaired. Early identification and intervention are necessary to enable children who are deaf or hard of hearing to learn language during the critical early years. Each deaf or hard of hearing child has unique language learning and communication needs. Various language development and educational approaches are chosen by families to address these needs.
Hearing aids can benefit many children with sensorineural loss.
There are different levels of benefit a child may receive from a hearing aid. Some children may benefit from a hearing aid to process spoken English or components of spoken English while other children may use a hearing aid only for more basic purposes such as alerting to sounds. Mixed Hearing Loss Mixed hearing losses cause difficulty of both loudness and distortion. Since mixed losses combine the characteristics of conductive and sensorineural loss, the extent of each component will determine its implications. If the conductive component is significant, with very little damage to the nerves of the inner ear, the disorder will center on loudness rather than distortion of sound.