Deafness comes in two forms - conductive (the result of conditions such as glue ear, blockages in the ear canal or damage to the ear drum) and sensorineural (conditions such as otosclerosis or fusion of the ear bones, as well as damage to the cochlear hairs and auditory nerve). Most cases of born-deafness are sensorineural, and most of these cases are caused by flattening of the hairs that receive sound in the cochlea.

Each of these hairs respond to sound at differing frequencies, which results in residual hearing for profoundly Deaf people (in particular speech sounds) being distorted. As I said earlier, hearing aids amplify sound. They do so indiscriminately i.e. they don’t amplify certain frequencies over others, and therefore are of little use to profoundly Deaf people, at least as far as speech is concerned.

Further to the point on cochlear implants….. The use of these (at least here in Britain) is controversial as they are invasive and their claim to ‘cure’ deafness and restore ‘perfect’ hearing has been found wanting. While they are more powerful than hearing aids and are certainly beneficial for people that have lost their hearing, for profoundly deaf people they do not provide sufficient hearing to call them ‘hearing’ people. Also, as they are implanted into the head, once fitted it becomes very dangerous for implantees to participate in contact sports or any activity where bumps to the head are likely.

The controversy really arises because it is our Health service’s policy to implant children/babies as young as possible because it is believed that the younger the implant is performed, the better chance the child has of learning speech. In reality, the majority of Deaf children leave school with barely intelligible speech and the reading age of an average 8-9 year old.

Deaf communities worldwide vehemently oppose such a view. They believe that the true benefit for Deaf children is to learn and be taught through sign language, and learn the written language as a second language. This sidesteps the need for surgery, and in fact enables the Deaf child to become fluent in two languages, thus increasing their literacy.