Your children's ears (1945)

[Music] these children are deaf and it's a great handicap to them first of all they have to be taught how to speak in the ordinary way a child learns to speak by hearing the words grown-up say and then repeating the sound deaf children cannot do this and must follow a difficult roundabout method they have to learn lip reading and how to repeat the sounds which go with different lip movements it's a long hard process these children have been ated for years and at an age when other children are speaking fluently they are still learning to read single words from the lips of their teacher the teacher says do you know what a magician is they don't it's a new word to them and because of their deafness they've never had the chance to meet it they're not less intelligent than other children but because of the difficulty of teaching them they go more slowly and have fallen behind every new word has to be split up into its separate sounds M magician most of these children were not born deaf they lost their hearing through an illness in early childhood this boy became deaf at 3 through an attack of measles this girl after scarlet fever and this boy after influenza these and other childhood diseases are likely to affect small children particularly and cause deafness but with proper care and attention most cases of deafness can be prevented the ear is a very delicate instrument the outside part which we usually call the ear is the least important it's really only a trumpet for collecting sound the real hearing mechanism is embedded well inside the bone of the skull from the ear trumpet a canal runs in through the bone for an inch or so at the entrance there are a number of short stiff hairs which act as a filter and keep out dust and insects along the sides of the canal there are glands which produce a fairly stiff wax this helps to keep the canal clean and the wax in this canal should not be interfered with except by a doctor or nurse the inner end of the canal is curtained off by a thin circular membrane the eardrum these different structures the ear trumpet the canal and the e drum make up what is called the external ear beyond the eardrum is the middle ear the middle ear is like a box enclosed on one side by the eardrum and on the other side by the inner ear a small window connects the middle ear with the inner ear this window is covered by a membrane called the inner e drum the middle ear is also connected to the back of the throat by a tube called the ustation tube tube this lets air into the middle ear from the throat and keeps an even pressure on the outer ear drum with the air which Flows In along the canal suspended like a bridge across the middle ear are three small bones they're called after their different shapes first the hammer its handle is firmly attached to the eardrum with head uppermost the Anvil connects the head of the Hammer with the Stirrup the Stirrup completes the bridge and is fixed to the inner eardrum in this way there is a complete span of bone delicately suspended and reaching from the outer eardrum to the inner eardrum the inner ear is divided into two parts the top half is the organ of balance which helps us to keep upright and maintain our balance the lower half is the true organ of hearing this is shaped like a small shell and is called the cocka in the cocka lie the many little strands of the nerve of hearing which connect it to the brain and the whole of this inner ear is filled with fluid when a stone is thrown into a pond it produces waves which travel outwards in circles sound waves travel in much the same way except that they travel out in all directions this is what happens when a sound wave reaches the ear the sound waves enter the canal and agitate the eardrum this sets the hammer bone in motion which in turn agitates the Anvil the Anvil agitates the sturup and the sturup passes the vibrations on to the inner eardrum finally the vibrations pass through the fluid of the ccka to the nerves which carry the messages to the brain where they're interpreted as sound deafness is sometimes caused by an obstruction in the external ear the external passage may get clogged up with too much wax and when the wax hardens it stops the sound waves reaching the a drum sometimes an absis forms in the external passage this makes the passage walls swell up and again the sound waves cannot get through freely children often push foreign bodies such as beads or peas into their ears this is the wrong way to deal with it don't probe about with a hairpin or match stick the slightest slip May injure the delicate eardrum so take your child to a clinic and let the doctors see do it disease of the middle ear can be even more dangerous it's one of the most common causes of deafness and it may start with an ordinary cold remember how the ustan tube runs from the middle ear to the back of the throat and keeps an even pressure of air on the eardrum this diagram shows where the ustan tube from each ear enters the the throat these narrow tubes are the key to all diseases of the middle ear if anything goes wrong with them deafness will result when you have a cold mucus fills the air passages of the nose and mouth and some of it may infect the ustation tube and cause inflammation the walls of the ustation tubes swell up and air cannot flow into the middle ear this will cause buzzing noises and temporary deafness which often go with colds common as they are it's dangerous to neglect these symptoms if your child has a cold don't let her pass it on to other people make sure that it's dealt with immediately and completely cured from the earliest possible age the child should be taught to blow her nose and as soon as she is old enough she must be encouraged to do it by herself the nose should be blown gently and without pressing the nostrils for damage may be done by blowing too hard in many schools the children often play games which teach them how to breathe correctly breathing properly through the nose is a great help in keeping free from colds the air is filtered in the nose and warmed up to blood heat before it passes into the lungs and an afternoon rest with plenty of fresh air and an eye kept on their breathing and most important of all a proper diet will all help to build up your children's defenses against golds but if curs are neglected really serious damage can be done to the middle ear the germs May spread right up the tube and cause inflammation of the whole length of it the inflammation spreads to the middle ear and finally an absis develops this produces a discharge with increasing pressure on the eardrum eventually the pressure forces a hole through the drum and a discharging ear is the result after the drum is broken the pain may get less or even stop and the fact that the air is still discharging means that the disease has not been cured the absis May heal up but the hole in the air drum may not unless it's attended to the walls of the middle ear may become permanently inflamed and interfere with the work of the small burs if this happens the bridge for the sound waves is broken or lost and permanent deafness is the result a severe ear AE or a discharging ear may be very dangerous and requires immediate and careful attention this is the wrong way to deal with a discharge it's contagious so don't wipe it away with a towel or a handkerchief or touch it with the fingers use cotton wool instead and when you finished with it burn it at once it's a good idea to keep a plug of cotton wool in the air to absorb the discharge make sure that the plug is changed frequently until the ear gets proper attention but remember the discharge will contaminate your fingers so always wash your hands after changing the plug another way the infection May spread is through hair covering the external ear and touching the discharge to prevent this the hair should be cut away or tied back well clear of the ear parents should also watch their children's breathing and notice any signs of difficulty in breathing through the nose breathing through the mouth is not normal and neither is snoring both mean that something is wrong possibly adenoids adenoids is another trouble in childhood which leads to colds and may cause deafness this child's dullness is not due to any real slowness but to the fact that she can't hear well because of adenoids adenoids are caused by the infection of certain tissues at the back of the nose when we breathe in dust and germs in the air are absorbed by these soft fos of tissue which act as a filter sometimes however the impurities are too much for the cleansing folds they become diseased swell up and block the back of the the nose this tends to produce colds and nearly always infects the opening of the ustan tube once the adenoids are removed by a simple operation the ustation tube is freed and the deafness will disappear here is the same child 4 months later now that she can hear perfectly well and breathe normally again she's no longer handicapped and can take her part in all the activities that go on around her these are the important things to remember the ordinary cold if neglected is one of the most common causes of deafness mouth breathing and snoring at night usually mean that something is wrong it may mean that your child has adenoids and adenoids lead to colds and loss of hearing a simple operation will quickly put it right don't probe about in the ear with a hair pin or match stick the doctor or nurse at the clinic will do the job with less danger to the eardrum always use cotton wool to wipe away discharge from the ear and be sure to burn it at once if you suspect there is anything wrong with your child's ears even a slight earache see the doctor or take her to a clinic if the symptoms are neglected treatment may become more difficult and uncertain but if ear disease is treated in its early stages it can nearly always be cured and your child will be saved much suffering and unhappiness in later [Music] life