THE SEARCH

[Music] from the colleges and universities of the nation CBS television brings you the search the search to know and understand man and his work the search for a richer happier life for all [Music] mrs. Hill won't you come in and sit down over there and will that small-fry Cruz a bit sit down on the couch I'm Charles Romine we're here to follow an adventure in detection an adventure whose outcome can affect the happiness of you and your children at the same time we're going to be seeing some great new advances in the struggle against an invisible and greatly misunderstood handicap deafness with us is dr. Johnny Borrell a professor of Otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital dr. board Lee could you tell us what's going on here in this room we've made arrangements for you to look in on the diagnostic study of a two year old child what's wrong with him his mother suspects he's deaf that's for us to find out his medical history and has already been taken and his ears nose and throat have been examined by one of our ear specialists now he's being brought in for a diagnostic study on his hearing that's dr. William hardy director of the Hearing & speech center and that's dr. Marion Paul's good morning mrs. Hill I'm dr. hardy you've already met dr. Paul's suppose we review the general picture with Barry just a bit see that we all agree about some of the details so far you know we're learning hearing impairment in the family no there hasn't been and you have other children yes I have two others older no one older and the younger baby and they've been perfectly normal for us hearing this one time when did he first sit up at about five or six months and that's perfectly well within normal range how about walking I don't mean pulling himself up and walking independently that was slower he was twenty-two months so that's just a couple months ago I noticed the dr. Paul's and dr. hardy are watching very very carefully why first deafness changes the entire development of a child we must learn as much as we can about his total behavior beside we don't know yet whether he is deaf when did you begin to suspect hearing impairment well I asked him to get away from the coffee table and got no response so I called my husband Ernie that child just doesn't mind anymore and my husband blew a whistle no response so Harry wasn't looking at him it no hear his back he was turned away from us and then he clapped his hands no response we tried just every sound conceivable I went out into the kitchen and picked up this pan and hit the little gas to just as hard as I could we got absolutely no response from the youngster then of course the realization that he couldn't hear and I rushed to the phone to call the doctor and got an appointment for the next day we started making inquiries several men at home weren't certain whether Barry hurt or not it was thought that there was some hearing but no one knew how much then someone recommended that we come to John Hopkins and that is the reason that I brought Barry here we wanted a direct answer we'd like to know if there is any hearing and how much [Music] berry-berry berry holder might where he is mrs. Hale berry berry berry we all have tried the old roost and see what he does today my red sign is there any no question about it mrs. Hill he has some hearing now the point is to find out exactly how much very reassurance here very doesn't look too happy about the whole thing no he's not very happy it's adhesive tape this bothering him he's not being hurt doctor portly I wonder if you could explain something to us about this test I understand it was developed here at Johns Hopkins by you and dr. hardy that's right it helps solve some of the problems that have been baffling my particular profession for many years no what are those problems well it's to determine exactly how hard of hearing a child is you see I think everyone agrees that many of these children could be helped a great deal more if their hearing loss was discovered early ideally they should be starved in training between 18 months and two years that's the peak period of their learning ability for speech and it's before deafness has kind of warped them you mean even if a child can't be cured you can compensate for his deafness by training the majority of children diagnoses death still have some hearing which if found early enough can be used profitably in training the important thing though is an accurate diagnosis because a difference in the type of hearing loss may mean a difference in the type of training we're just about ready to start now the machine dr. hardy is adjusting is called an audiometer it produces a pure tone of any desired intensity that is loudness or softness and any desired frequency or pitch we can also select which year the sound goes to so that we can test each year independently we usually start with a frequency of five hundred cycles and make the tone good and loud then we follow it with an electric shock which is administered through a pair of electrodes on the calf of Berry's leg it's a very mild shock just enough to startle a child a bit but not to hurt him in any way we made sure that in consultation with pediatricians and psychiatrists here we go again the change in a skin resistance is recorded by an ink writer what's the pen see that sudden upward swing that was in response to the shock notice that there's no reaction but after the toner sounded only after the shock after a few repetitions berry will become conditioned because the shock is always preceded immediately by a sound he will unconsciously react to that sound in anticipation of the shock there see the pen swing then comes the response to the shock now that Berry is conditioned we can get down to the business of testing his hearing we just lower the intensity the sound a little still we get a response to the tone we lower it again and he still hears the sound still lower still a response to the sound once more this time no response to the town that's a tired little attacker you have there but a little sleep and he'll be back on his feet again now this hill we've been over all of our tests with Barry and he has a loss of about 50 to 55 decibels in speech range now that's a moderately severe loss not too severe you've probably heard about hearing being cured if it's discovered early enough Barry's is not that type his is a nerve type loss where there's injury to the auditory nerve and there's no cure for it from a medical or surgical point of view he has sufficient residual hearing however so that an aide will give him substantial help he won't have to go to a school for the deaf or any such institution if you're willing to take the time and the trouble to spend with him at home working with him he will be able to become a normal child he'll be able to learn sound learn to use sound and he'll be able to talk and you'll be able to communicate with other children this is going to take a lot of learning on your part you've got to learn all about his problems and to do that I'm gonna suggest that you have a long talk with dr. hardy no I'm going to try to let you hear just about the way Barry does with his hearing loss can you hear me now all right what you're getting is just about the level of average conversational voice now with Barry's loss which affects both loudness and the clarity of sound this is the way this average conversational voice would seem did you hear me well now let's try something a little louder suppose one day mrs. Hill you get good and mad at Barry and you want to say Barry you get away from that cookie jar do you hear now with his hearing loss dropping down in loudness but especially affecting clarity so that the high tones don't come through this is about the way that remark would sound what about a hearing aid dr. hardy well it'll help a great deal mrs. Hill of course I can't duplicate exactly the effect of a hearing aid as Asbury would hear with it let's take that schooling you gave Barry a moment ago remember Barry get away from that cookie jar G here and see what it's like the effect would be very much like that mrs. Hill I've made not sound like very much to you but you'd be amazed at what that can mean to a little boy with this kind of hearing loss provided of course that he's given the necessary training in a nutshell the problem is this a hearing aid alone won't make sound come alive for Barry his hearing loss is too great for that he needs not only to become aware of sound but to learn the habit of listening your first big training job at home is to teach Barry how to listen to learn the meaning of sound by filling his environment with sounds of all kinds all day long and most important by talking to him constantly every minute of time that you can what about Barry's learning how to talk well there's nothing wrong with various vocal cords mrs. Hill but remember that children talk because they hear and as they hear once Barry begins to learn that the sounds of speech mean something he'll be ready to talk now don't misunderstand for him to learn to talk well and fairly normally is going to take long long years a very hard effort on your part and he is and everybody else's it'll be worth it mrs. Hill I've just made arrangements for you to look in on a couple of the training sessions with some of the youngsters here at the center it'll give you a better idea of what lies ahead for you and Barry you can meet Barry downstairs in the nursery while you look around turn it around turn it around goes right here this little fellow is already responding to sound what we want to do now is help him learn how to distinguish one sound from another wheel wheel it goes over here right here Ted there's the other wheel wheel now let's see if we can get tad interested in some toys that make different kinds of sounds may I help you here's the fire engine [Applause] [Music] [Applause] make it whole last girl let's get lined up that's fine you sit back there next to Paige all right what is that big blue thing there in the living room these little girls both have severe hearing losses because what they hear is distorted their speech is also distorted it's going to take years of hard work for them to develop smooth fluent speech but at least they're talking and can make themselves understood Jerry okay Jerry jam ping ping ship okay chip chip chocolate chocolate ice cream chocolate chip ice cream that's good can you say chocolate chip ice cream stop your bitrate that's pretty good I try it again this here ice cream I would drink put your hands down minute clip my back like chocolate chip I train I train low low low low lower lower now let's try some eight words fight fight fight fight night-night white white that's very good now if you'll do me a favor please they stay right where you are we have somebody outside who I'm sure would like to meet you this is illness miss Gillick yeah hello mrs. Hales little boy had been going through the diagnostic process here today Helen he has a hearing loss of about 55 decibels I thought mrs. Hill it'd be very much interested in sitting in while we talked for a couple of minutes how is this can you hear me all right very well how much hearing whilst have you Kailyn I was born with a hearing defect and how much is it about Sunday a decibel you understand mrs. Hill that that is the custom is a five times more hearing loss and bare hands you can you remember back Helen how did you get started in learning to understand language I thought if they learn when I was about to my mother's needs in other words that did much the same thing as amplification does does yes and then what about school did you have a special schooling yes I went to public schools like all other children and had a few lessons outside either at home or after school that continued until I was in ninth grade after that I was on my own all the way through to polish I had nothing by public school instruction then what did you do after college what do you what do you do now well I am doing personnel works with the Navy and they are of very natures and Naval Research Laboratory so that really most of your daily time is spending in direct contact with people yes I do both at work and outside what about you social life villain what happens outside well I attend modern dance classes I teach Sunday School on Sunday mornings and well I have one special interest a young man that I go wrong with that's a good idea what what did he do Helen he's an economist with the government and of course he has normal hearing yes he does he had normal hearing I haven't set a date yet I suppose no well that's very good Helen thank you very much we'll see you about a month and we arranged to take you through some trials with these new transistor hearing aids that's right okay glad to meet you mr. SIL hope to see you again well how do you feel about things now mrs. Hill so relieved to know where Barry stands at last dr. hardy in the long run you'll be glad you back to this property as you have that's one of the things we're trying to get across with parents when a youngster doesn't respond to sound or when its overall development is a bit slow it's terribly important to get his hearing tested early if his hearing is affected sooner or later something's got to be done about it the longer that decision is put off the more and more difficult it becomes to assure a child of a reasonably normal life the way Barry's going to be now let's talk about the hearing aid it'll take a few days for the ear mold impression to be ready could you make arrangements to stay in town not very well to youngsters and Cleveland I better come back when will it be ready alright the mold will be ready in about four days we let you know that'll be fine this is the hearing aid this is the receiver which goes into his ears and this is a microphone which makes sound louder see we'll put it in his ear just like this that's alright that's alright Barry Barry [Music] [Music] this is the first time he's heard sound and such a big dose and naturally he's a bit overwhelmed but he'll adjust to it pretty quickly [Music] [Music]