Successful auditory learning is dependent upon the ability to detect, discriminate, identify, and comprehend sounds. Basically, two factors determine if those needs are met: the acoustic environment and the hearing ability of the listener. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the student population has a hearing or auditory processing problem which necessitates a better listening environment to compensate for the listener's impairment. Be aware, these problems impact students of all ages and some are on the rise.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), hearing loss affects one in five or approximately 20 percent of U.S. adolescents ages 12-19.⁶ This is an increase of about 30% from little more than one decade earlier. The suspected cause for the dramatic increase is noise generated from loud music, although there has been no hard evidence to support this assertion.⁷

An earlier 1998 study reported that approximately 14.9% (or approximately 8 million) of U.S. children have low-frequency or high-frequency hearing loss of at least 16-dB hearing level in one or both ears (Niskar, et.al, 1998).⁸ These are permanent hearing losses. If correctly identified, students with such a hearing loss may receive a learning accommodation such as a personal FM system.

But these are not the only children in our classrooms who experience a hearing loss. Many students suffer a temporary hearing loss due to ear infections that are especially prevalent amongst the elementary school-aged children. This type of hearing loss is referred to as a conductive hearing loss caused by Otitis media. Otitis media (more commonly referred to as a middle ear infection) can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or allergies creating a build-up of fluid in the area behind the eardrum referred to as the middle ear.⁹

When the middle ear is filled with fluid, it prevents sound transmission of the sound vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear, resulting in a mild to moderate temporary hearing loss.¹⁰ Few educators and parents realize the impact that one middle ear infection can have on a child's ability to hear and process what they hear in the classroom. Furthermore, they do not realize the duration of that impairment which puts their child at academic risk for learning. According to Dr. Vincent Carrasco, M.D., fluid can remain trapped in the middle ear for three to six weeks before it is cleared, even after a week of antibiotics.¹¹ The result is that one ear infection can impair a child's listening and learning abilities for up to 9 weeks, or approximately 16-25% of the academic year.

How significant is that fluid build-up? Plug your ears with your fingers and listen to someone talk, in order to find out. This is how voices sound to children with fluid in their middle ear. Speech sounds that are received by the middle ear have different pitches: low frequencies for vowels; high frequencies for consonants. When the middle ear fills with fluid, the low frequencies can pass through while the high frequencies cannot because there is not enough energy to transmit these sounds.¹² As a result, a child may not be hearing sounds of s, f, th, sh and others.¹³ This can result in problems with speech, language and learning.

Imagine now if that academic loss was repeated or extended because of recurring or chronic ear infections. It would not be uncommon for a child with chronic infections to encounter significant speech and reading difficulties, due to problems learning phonics. "Recurrent OME in children has been linked to compromised speech, language, intellectual, attentional, learning, psychoeducational, and psychosocial development. Moreover, a relationship between recurrent OME and reductions in speech-perception ability has been reported."¹⁴

How prevalent are these infections amongst the school population? A federally funded research project referred to as the MARRS project (Mainstream Amplification Resource Room Study) identified that 43% of students had minimal hearing loss on any given day.¹⁵ This staggering figure is attributed to research suggesting that approximately 10-15% of all elementary school children are experiencing mild hearing losses associated with OME at any given time.¹⁶

Research by Crandell and Flannagan (1999) determined that in noise, children with a conductive hearing loss caused by OME scored only 54% on speech-perception tests.¹⁷ Gravel and Wallace (1992) found that OME-positive children exhibited considerably greater difficulties understanding speech in a noisy environment than did the OME-negative group.¹⁸ Therefore, children with a positive history of OME require a significantly greater SNR (by 2.9 dB) than do the OME negative children to reach equivalent performance levels.¹⁹