HEARING AND LISTENING DISORDERS: CLASSROOM IDENTIFICATION

Because hearing disorders often go unrecognized, afflicted students may be misdiagnosed as learning disabled and eventually many exhibit behavioral problems. Alert educators have a role to play in identifying auditory problems before they seriously disrupt a child's performance. White describes some of the most common types of hearing disorders — high frequency hearing loss, unilateral hearing loss, fluctuating conductive hearing loss, and auditory processing deficiency — and the symptoms that give clues to their presence. She suggests that it may be important to all children to reduce the overall level of classroom noise.