... to understand the deaf community and therefore abandoned their involvement. So how can we define deafness? Deafness can be defined medically, educationally and culturally. Medically: Hearing loss is categorised at various levels from slight to profound, (Slight = up to 40dB loss, moderate = 41dB - 70dB, severe = 71 - 95dB, profound = 96dB and greater loss). Educationally: Educationally a child would be considered to be 'hearing impaired' if their hearing loss was large enough to affect the child's ability to learn language via audition and their ability to perform academically. Culturally: A shared cultural identity. Deafness can occur before or after birth. Medically, deafness that is present at birth is called congenital, and deafness that is acquired after birth is called adventurous. Educationally whether the deafness is considered congenital or adventurous is less important than if it is prelingual (before spoken language develops i.e. approximately age 2 years) or ...

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