User:Kates 13/sandbox

1.definition
A "prelingual deaf" individual is someone who was born with a hearing loss or someone whose hearing loss occurred before they began to speak. Infants usually start saying their first words around one year, therefore for a child to be considered prelingually deaf, they would have to have lost their hearing before age one (which is the age at which the majority of hearing losses in children occur). Congenial hearing losses are those that are present at birth, but a child with a congenial hearing loss is also considered prelingually deaf since a newborn infant has not acquired speech and langauge capabilities yet.

Statistics
Each year in the United States, approximately 12,000 babies are born with a hearing loss. Profound hearing loss occurs somewhere between 4-11 children per every 10,000 children.

3.causes
Prelingual hearing loss can be either acquired, meaning it occurred after birth due to illness of injury, or it can be congenital, meaning it was present at birth

. Congenial hearing loss can be caused by genetic or nongenetic factors. The nongenetic factors account for about one fourth of the congenial hearing losses in infants. These factors could include: Maternal infections, such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, or herpes simplex virus, lack of oxygen, maternal diabetes, toxemia during pregnancy, low birth weight, prematurity, birth injuries, toxins including drugs and alcohol consumed by the mother during pregnancy, and complications associated with the Rh factor in the blood/jaundice. Genetic factors account for over half of the infants with congenial hearing loss. Most of these are caused by an autosomal recessive hearing loss or an autosomal dominant hearing loss. Autosomal recessive hearing loss is when both parents carry the recessive gene, and pass it on to their child. The autosomal dominant hearing loss is when an abnormal gene from one parent is able to cause hearing loss even though the matching gene from the other parent is normal.

Treatment
Hearing aids and cochlear implants might make it possible for the child to hear sounds of their hearing range, still they will not restore normal hearing. Cochlear impants are capable of stimulating the auditory nerve directly to restore some hearing, but the sound quality will never be that of a normal hearing ear, suggesting that deafness cannot be fully overcome by medical devices. On the bright side, benefits and safety of cochlear implants continues to grow, especial when children with implants recieve a lot of oral educational support. It is important to detect if a child has a preligual hearing loss early, so they can get fitted for a cochlear implant. It is an audiologist's goal to test and fit a deaf child with a cochlear implant by six months of age, so that they don't get behind in learning language. In fact, there are increasing expectations that if children gets fit for implants early enough, they can acquire verbal language skills to the same level as their peers with normal hearing.

Social & Cognitive Impact
Children who are prelingually deaf and cannot hear noise beneath 60 decibels, which is about the intensity level of a vacuum cleaner

, will not be capable of developing oral language to that of their peers. Children born with profound hearing impairment, 90 decibels and above (about the level of a food blender)

, are classified as functionally deaf. These children will not develop speech an language skills with out help from a speech pathologist. Such children will acquire language comprehension difficulties, even when other modes of language (such as writing and signing) are up to their age level standard.

Generally, prelingual deaf individuals have reading levels that do not exceed the level of a fourth grader's. Children who lose their hearing after they have acquired some amount of language, even if it is just for a short while, demonstrate a much higher level of linguistic achievement than those who have not had any language exposure.