Facts about ... hearing and hearing impairment

[Extract] Hearing is extremely important for learning. School and classroom communications are largely based on spoken language, which requires hearing. Hearing plays a key role in acquiring spoken language, so hearing difficulties affect all levels of communication. If you teach a student with hearing impairment, a specialist teacher in hearing impairment can provide you with information about the student's hearing and learning needs, make specialist resources available to you, and help you to develop an Individual Education Plan (rEP) for the student. Three important terms you need to know are: • auditory functioning (i.e., the way a person uses their hearing); • auditory efficiency (i.e., the ease and comfort in performing an auditory task); and • auditory perception (i.e., the ability of the student to interpret auditory information)