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IRREMEDIABLE DEAFNESS IN CHILDREN

A NATIONAL estimate of the number of children handicapped developmentally and educationally by a significant degree of irremediable ear disease and its accompanying deafness is well worth-while and probably only possible in communities of small total population similar to that of the Commonwealth of Australia. The WHO report of 1970 on "Deafness in the World Today" gives an unsatisfactory analysis of the world-wide incidence of this type of deafness. In dealing with vast populations outside Europe and the Americas many variables must be noted. Diagnostic and medical facilities regionally available, as well as social organization of communities, may vary greatly between urban and rural groups. Conditions in the African and Asian nations spring immediately to mind. The salvaging of the affected by diagnostic and remedial services in major cities will be counterbalanced by the neglect of nomadic and agricultural peoples. In addition, in the cities infants may survive prenatal hazards from which children to whom resuscitation procedures are not available will perish. The WHO report concludes that compared with 0·77 cases of handicapping deafness per 1,000 population in America, Asia and Europe, Oceania presents a smaller proportion of severely deaf children. Anyone with a working knowledge of the inequality of diagnostic facilities in this area is bound to doubt the accuracy of this estimate. The WHO report quotes Dr O. Bentzen, well known for his work in Denmark, as describing "children with impaired hearing" as including all those deaf and hard of hearing whose hearing is insumcient for them to learn their own language, participate in normal activities and benefit from general school education. This statement emphasizes the practical importance to government departments, social, educational and public health, of having a trustworthy estimate of the numbers for whom provision must be made in terms of preschool guidance for mothers of deaf children, and of education in properly equipped and serviced schools. The facilities of these must include good electronic instrumentation and planning for socio-economic assimilation destined to utilize the school leaven' abilities to the exclusion of their disabilities.