What is Special Educational Needs (SEN)?
Hearing Impairment
Hearing Impairment refers to a person who has difficulty in perceiving or identifying sound clearly due to auditory problems. The impairment may be unilateral or bilateral. The degree of hearing loss can be classified into five levels as listed below:
| Degree of Hearing Loss | Ability to perceive sound |
| Mild (26-40 dB) | Difficult to identify soft sound such as whispering |
| Moderate (41-55 dB) | Unable to hear clearly what others are saying during conversation. Hearing aids are necessary |
| Moderately severe (56-70 dB) | Unable to clearly hear loud noises such as telephone ring |
| Severe (71-90 dB) | Can only hear very loud noises and sounds such as shouting or vacuum cleaner noise |
| Profound (over 91 dB) | Difficult to perceive any sound |
Communication Tips:
- Face the person
- Avoid background noise
- Avoid talking too rapidly or using sentences that are too complex
- If the hearing-impaired person has difficulty in understanding a particular phrase or word, find another way of saying the same thing instead of repeating the same words
