Question: How do you help a child with unilateral deafness in one ear?
Answer:
My first encounter with unilateral deafness, with someone deaf in one ear was when I met a parent of a deaf child. I was puzzled when the parent kept turning her head in a certain way. She explained to me that she was deaf in one ear.
Technically, someone who is deaf in one ear and has perfect hearing in the other ear, can still hear.
However, there are still challenges. For one thing, being deaf in one ear means you don't hear in that direction. That is why the mother turned her head, so she could hear me out of her one good ear.
Deafness in one ear is known as "unilateral hearing loss." The topic rarely comes up on the About.com Deafness blog and forum, but when it does, people with unilateral hearing loss learn that they are not alone with their difficulties. For example, Bambi posted on the forum:
My name is Bambi and I have a 6-year-old child in kindergarten. She is deaf in one ear and had 2 years of preschool at our near by elementary school in an IEP [individualized education plan] program. She has been now mainstreamed into kindergarten this year, but I have found that she is not hearing enough to understand the phonics. I have worked with her and I'm getting frustrated. When talking to her teacher, she seems to think that my daughter is doing just fine. I don't want her to just be pushed along in school. I want her to be a good reader. Is there anything I can do to help her along this journey into reading?
About.com visitors responded with various comments (edited examples below):
I too am deaf in one ear from birth, born as a measle baby, my auditory nerves on my right ear, never developed...There will be times she will not hear what people say..."
- Tim
...I don’t really understand why you’re so worried about this partial deafness; if she has NORMAL hearing in one ear, then she’ll be fine most of the time. All you really need to do is explain to her teachers that your daughter needs to position herself in the classroom so that she can hear better...
- Fran
I too am deaf in one ear since young. I studied in mainstream school. Never really had difficulty with lessons [because] teachers don't whisper in classes. The only setback is social. The inconvenience of not hearing someone talk from my bad side and the embarrassment of not being able to follow conversations in crowded places.
- Kenny
Does your child have unilateral hearing loss? How have you dealt with it? Share your experiences on the forum.