DESCRIPTION, IMPORTANCE, AND BACKGORUND INFORMATION
As a kid we look forward to high school. We could not wait for the fun of making new friends, having more freedom, and discovering things we had no idea even existed or that would ever be relevant to us. What we did not expect was all the confusion and difficulties that came with adolescence. Now try to imagine how even more difficult adolescence is for a child who cannot hear.
Although deafness can affect all ages, the chosen cohort group is adolescence because the identity found will severely affect the person they become. The causes of born deafness are usually unknown. Approximately one out of every 1,500 Americans is born deaf (Sheridan 63). Some studies say half of these are due …show more content…
Although one may assume that a cochlear implant would be more likely to work on someone who has partial hearing, actually the best candidate is someone who is born deaf. Some deaf people never learn how to sign because they are born to hearing parents and the language is not introduced (Sheridan 20). Just like when losing any of your other senses, all of your other senses become heightened, it has been shown that deaf signers have “an enhanced ability to generate mental images” (Marschark 42). Marschark also tells us how deaf and hearing signers develop mental images faster than those who do not sign (40). Those who are deaf are also much better with facial recognition and the reading of body language.
There are many different hypotheses of causes of deafness. There is no single cause. A lot of the time, genetics can play a roll. Prematurity, low birth weight and severe jaundice at birth have all been linked to about 25 percent of deafness. There is also Usher Syndrome, but this in most cases also causes blindness along with deafness (Marschark 85).
CONCLUDING