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‘He Can Hear When He Wants To!’ Assessment of Hearing Function for People with Learning Difficulties
Author(s) -
Murdoch Heather
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british journal of learning disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1468-3156
pISSN - 1354-4187
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.1994.tb00123.x
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , psychology , function (biology) , learning disability , audiology , applied psychology , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , communication , evolutionary biology , biology
Assessing the hearing of people with learning difficulties, especially those with profound and multiple learning difficulties, is rarely easy. Their use of hearing, furthermore, may be greatly affected by their well‐being and by environmental factors, and it is difficult for clinical assessment to predict these effects. Staff or carers who work with such clients day by day are well placed to carry out ongoing observation, and to interpret clients' responses. This paper suggests an approach to assessment that does not require expert knowledge of the processes involved in hearing: rather, it requires expert knowledge of the individual who is being assessed. It identifies a range of factors which may affect functional hearing, suggests how their effects may be recorded and considers some of the implications for programme and environmental planning.