Classification of the deaf

The pedagogic classification of the deaf and hard hearing child and his educational development is of even more vital importance than his consideration as a clinical entity.

This classification is dependent on:

a) the age of the child,

b) degree of defective hearing,

c) acquired fluency of speech.

There are several types of deaf children.

One type is a congenially deaf child who has never heard speech.

The other type is one who has acquired a hearing defect after the establishment of speech. There are two types of acquired deafness in children.

First, the child who has acquired deafness before he has sensed fluent speech.

The other, the child who has acquired deafness after fluency of speech has been established.

The first type of children with total deafness which has come in before speech has been developed is to follow the same course of training as the congenitally deaf who has never heard speech.

The child who has acquired deafness before the age of 3 years may be placed in the same class for training as the child who has never heard speech.

It is interesting to note that a large percentage (30%) of children with biological congenital deafness also exhibit sufficient residual hearing, that way be used as a nucleus for reeducation.

The other type of child who hаs acquired deafness after development of speech is one who has suffered from infectious diseases such as meningitis, influenza etc.

Let us consider more in detail children with defective hearing.

They are:

1) Children congenitally deaf who were born with a total loss of hearing, or who through disease or accident lost their hearing before they had learned to talk.

2) Children who have lost all or almost all their hearing after speech and language patterns have been established, and they have educational treatment as though they were only hard of hearing (h.o.h).

3) Children who, while having a significant hearing loss, are, not profoundly deaf and whose varying degrees of resi­dual hearing can be utilized to a great advantage in their education.

Children in the first of these groups present the most serious educational problems due to their total lack of experience with natural speech or language. Children in the second group have a foundation of language usage and of natural speech upon which education must be helpful to them.

Children in the third group can with the use of mecha­nical hearing aids conserve or develop much of the natural quality of speaking voice and the ability to use oral language.

Т E R M S

clinical entity пациент, рассмотрение ребенка как клиниче­ского больного

degree of defective hearing степень недостатка слуха

acquired fluency of speech приобретенная беглость речи

congenitally deaf child глухой от рождения

the establishment of speech patterns овладение речевыми на­выками

to acquire deafness оглохнуть

total deafness полная глухота

to exhibit выявлять, проявлять

residual hearing остаточный слух

re-education переобучение

to suffer from страдать от

infectious diseases инфекционные заболевания

total loss of hearing полная потеря олуха

accident несчастный случай

significant hearing loss значительная потеря слуха

profoundly deaf совершенно глухой

varying degrees разные степени /глухоты/

to a great advantage с большой пользой

total lack of experience полное отсутствие опыта

educational treatment медико-педагогическое воздействие

hearing aid слуховой прибор для глухих и слабослышащих;

слуховой протез

ability способность

to conserve сохранить