The majority of the stimulus you receive in your environment is through hearing and vision. Think about how much auditory input you receive daily, whether it is on the telephone, listening to the radio or television, talking to friends, family, or individuals at school or work. Now what if you were not able to hear what was said to you accurately or if what you heard got jumbled up and didn't make sense? Would you be able to continue to stay on task? How would you be able to learn anything or understand what is going on? Would you be frustrated? Perhaps, you would completely withdraw and try not to communicate with people in your environment. This is what could happen if you had a hearing loss or an auditory processing problem.

TWO MAIN TYPES OF HEARING LOSS
A hearing loss can occur in two main categories: You can have a conductive hearing loss which affects your outer and/or middle ear. Typically these types of hearing losses are reversible, meaning they will heal by themselves or surgery can help. Some examples of causes of a conductive hearing loss are wax impacted in ear canal, ear infection in ear canal or middle ear space (behind eardrum), and an eardrum perforation.

Secondly, a sensorineural hearing loss is located in your inner ear or cochlea. This is caused by damage to the hair cells in the cochlea. Typically this type of hearing loss is not reversible and usually caused by hereditary factors, congenital issues, intense noise exposure, acoustic trauma, or presbycusis (decrease of hearing with age). You can also have a sudden hearing loss due to a virus or nutrional issues, it is possible for your hearing to be normal again, but medical treatment needs to be immediate.

A conductive hearing loss reduces the ability for the person to hear. Sounds seem softer and everything needs to be louder in order for the person to hear what is going on. With a sensorineural hearing loss not only are sounds softer, but they will most likely be distorted as well. So even if the sounds are made loud enough they might not be very clear. This can easily lead to problems communicating with other people, because you do not understand what they are saying and have to ask them to repeat what they said or talk louder.

Auditory processing is a natural process of taking in sound through the ear and having it travel up the brainstem to the cortex to be interpreted. To have a breakdown in this process is called an auditory processing disorder or delay. This is a type of hearing impairment that is located along the auditory nerve and/or brainstem. Auditory processing is "what our brain does with what the ear hears"(Katz). When one is faced with an auditory processing deficit their ears can pick up the sounds, words etc. however, their brain is not able to process the sounds properly, the auditory information might become jumbled up or confused and therefore, misunderstood.

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