Hear not, speak not

Members of the Johns Hopkins audiology team discuss the interrelationship of hearing, language, and speech, especially in children. Dr. Bordley explains the hearing process using a mock-up of the inner ear and brain. Dr. Pauls discusses children's normal speech development and shows children in this learning process. Dr. Hardy gives examples of how damage to the external or middle ear causes minor hearing problems, but damage to the inner ear causes hearing distortion. Since the hearing mechanism is an information bearing system, children who have problems with loudness, pitch, or both can have decoding issues. However, sight, taste, and smell also contribute to learning, so staff and parents can teach a repetitive, all-sensory form of learning, especially for children with aphasia, who have language problems unrelated to hearing loss. A film shows the observation and evaluation of a child in the clinic to determine whether he has hearing or language problems or a combination of the two. Dr. Hardy concludes that parents' acceptance and guidance is critical in training their hearing-impaired child.