Slide 2 [image]

One way to describe hearing loss is as “congenital” or “acquired”. Congenital means that a person was born with the hearing loss. Babies born with hearing loss can be identified through a newborn hearing screening test. The test is often done before a baby leaves the hospital. Acquired hearing loss means that a person could hear when he or she was born, but developed hearing loss later in life. Acquired hearing loss can also be described by the age at which it starts. If hearing loss starts before the age when children usually begin talking, it is called “pre-lingual”, which means “before speaking”. If hearing loss starts after the age when children begin talking, it is called “post-lingual”, which means “after speaking”.

If the hearing loss gets worse over time, it is called “progressive”. If the hearing loss does not change over time, it is “nonprogressive” or stable.
“Syndromic” means that a person has other symptoms besides hearing loss. For example, some people with hearing loss are also blind. There are many different syndromes that have hearing loss as one of the symptoms. “Nonsyndromic” means that the person does not have any other symptoms.
If more than one person in the family has hearing loss, it is said to be “familial”. If only one person in the family has hearing loss, it is called “sporadic”. However, a hearing loss that was originally thought to be sporadic can be recognized as familial if another child is born who also has hearing loss, or if other family members develop hearing loss.

The middle ear contains small bones that help send sound from the air to the inner ear. The inner ear changes these sounds into nerve signals that go to the brain. “Conductive” hearing loss is caused by problems in the external or middle ear. “Sensorineural” hearing loss is caused by problems in the inner ear or in the hearing nerve. “Mixed” hearing loss is due to both kinds of problems.

(at the bottom of the page, outside the box)
There are many others ways to describe hearing loss. The ones mentioned here are the ways that are most important to the All Ears study.