EIPA Written Test and Knowledge Standards

Medical Aspects of Deafness

There are many medical aspects that can make the classroom environment frustrating for a deaf or hard of hearing student. Knowing about these medical aspects helps interpreters recognize when an issue is affecting a student’s learning, giving interpreters the ability to adjust the conditions so that the student’s learning is not hindered.

Core Standards

A qualified interpreter who is knowledgeable about the following core standards will perform well on the Medical Aspects of Deafness portion of the test. These standards include:

• A student who can hear fairly well in quiet environments may perform much differently in noisy environments, which is typical of most classrooms.
• Hearing aids amplify sound, but they cannot correct a hearing loss. Hard-of-hearing students still miss a great deal of information, especially when noise is present.
• All students can experience a temporary loss of hearing when they have colds and ear infections.
• Hearing loss differs across students and different patterns affect a student’s ability to utilize hearing to learn speech and language. An interpreter should ask the deaf educator, speech pathologist, or audiologist to explain each student’s audiogram and how well the student can use his hearing to learn.
• Most hearing aid problems are due to dead batteries, clogged ear molds, or other minor problems that can be easily corrected by school personnel.
• An audiogram is a graphic representation of a student’s hearing loss. It estimates how much a student can depend on hearing to learn speech and language and to understand classroom content.