Some Possible Effects of the Delay of Early Treatment of Deafness

Questionnaire responses by parents of children enrolled in a school for the deaf indicated that those children who have additional learning problems superposed on their severe hearing impairment had been diagnosed as hearing-impaired, had been fitted with hearing aids, and had begun an educational program at a later age than the other children. These same children had more often been labeled “aphasic.” The difference in hearing levels between the groups of children was not enough to account for the considerable differences in early experiences. These data are interpreted as suggesting the hypothesis that sensory deprivation in hearing-impaired children resulting from delayed educational procedures and delayed sound amplification may produce an additional learning handicap which is only partly reversible by later therapeutic procedures.