Hearing and Literacy: How bad is the problem?

Otitis media is a chronic disease and is at epidemic proportions, among the highest in the world, in the Northern Territory. We have a serious health problem, even as defined by the World Health Organisation in the context of third world nations. It has extreme consequences as a barrier to literacy, but it also has consequences for the potential of the realisation of a person's personality, social interaction and their economic potential with regard to employment.

To have fluctuating hearing loss at an early age, especially when a child is learning English as a second language, affects the whole personality of an individual.

Otitis media and the problem that it raises for Territorians is that it is not just a medical problem. It's a disease of over-crowdedness, it's a disease of poverty — but the educational ramifications are immense. And the solutions aren't just found in the medical intervention, but can be found in the kinds of hearing interventions that good educational practice can achieve.

That was our principal reason for wanting to be part of the SRP projects. It was really an attempt to be able to show teachers and those who work directly with children in education settings, that the reason that they are so frustrated with their teaching experience sometimes, and the reason that children aren't learning, is because children are suffering from the long term consequences of early and continuing fluctuating hearing loss.