Deafness Books

Written by audiologist and award-winning author John M. Burkey, Baby Boomers and Hearing Loss: A Guide to Prevention and Care is a no-nonsense guide to the prevention and treatment of hearing loss, including solid information about the use of hearing aids. Though written especially for the baby boomer generation, which is beginning to confront hearing loss as the result of advancing age, Baby Boomers and Hearing Loss is enthusiastically recommended for anyone confronting an encroaching hearing problem. Chapters cover common causes of hearing loss, how hearing aids work, satisfaction and dissatisfaction with hearing aids, non-hearing aid solutions, and much more. An invaluable and highly readable "must-have" resource for anyone making difficult choices about hearing loss.

Most books on hearing loss are written at a very basic level. This book explains in detail the dilemmas faced by a person with cochlear hearing loss and the limitations of current hearing aids-even digital programmable aids. This book would be appropriate for a person with a cochlear (neural) hearing loss who wants more information or for an audiologist or speech and hearing professional.

This is a sweet story about a little boy getting a hearing aid and all of the issues surrounding that for most children. Cosmo Gets an Ear explains on a child's level what happens when Cosmo must get a hearing aid. How Cosmo's hearing loss was first detected as well as visits to the audiologist are described in a very comical manner. The story is written in a way that the reader or listener can interact by answering multiple-choice questions along the way. Cosmo goes from having no idea what a hearing aid is to talking with his friend about it and finally to realizing the benefit he receives when wearing his hearing aid. Hearing aid care is also shown in the story. Cosmo speaks to his class about his hearing aid and explains his hearing is helping him hear like glasses help people see - ear glasses.

In Martha Sheridan's earlier book, Inner Lives of Deaf Children: Interviews and Analysis, the author and Gallaudet University professor examined the inner life of young deaf children. In her new book, she returns to interview those same seven children to see how their lives have changed. Now they are teenagers.

Sheridan examines the similiarities and the differences between deaf and hearing adolescents, how each views themselves and their world at identical life points. Research into disability at different life stages is a fairly new area in the fields of child development, psychology and sociology, as prior generations of researchers, educators and medical professionals didn't contemplate the deaf child as a teenager, or as a young adult. There is no doubt that as the Generation Xers graduate from college and begin their own careers, there will probably be more written on the subject of deafness at every life stage, from birth to the end of life.

240 pages, with tables, reference and an index.

As a hearing person, it is hard for me to acquire an accurate picture of the deaf world as even my hearing impaired buddies can't tell much of the difference given their early loss of hearing and my limited understanding of sign language (they are somehow forced to sign more simply to express themselves in front of me). With a complete loss of hearing at the age of seven but mastery of English, the author can vividly depict how he 'sees' voices and sounds as well as what really exists in his world of silence. What's more, I truly admire his candid self-examination, such as the white superiority in South Africa in his times. It is racist in nowadays standard, but being truthful to oneself is far more precious than being politically correct to me. Highly recommend it to those who are interested in the issue of deafness.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, the Facts On File Encyclopedia Of Deafness and Hearing Disorders provides a comprehensive and "user friendly" reference of basic information on hearing disorders and deafness, from types of conditions to the legal rights for the hearing impaired, treatment options, and degrees of hearing loss. An excellent, basic reference which should be considered for any serious health library collection.

This book, seven strong chapters and a brief, personal Preface, ably discusses and deconstructs historic notions of disability ("the missing term in the race, class gender triad")and fully describes the harrowingly destructive - because so socially, culturally, and psychically damaging - concept of 'the norm,' historic uses (and abuse) of the body, and with it: the body politic.

Dr Davis supplies the reader with a bit of context. He grew up as the hearing child of Deaf parents in New York's South Bronx, where his parents, he reports, "were as good as any other person in the South Bronx, which is to say they were pretty badly off."

Chapter Four, "Nationalism and Deafness: The Nineteenth Century" offers historic perspectives on deafness, including the fact that by the beginning of the nineteenth century, sign language had become a transnational language. Anyone fluent in sign language could communicate with any other signer - worldwide. This is no small thing. The Deaf "became a subgroup within each state throughout Europe." Some additional topics are: oralism and sign language, disability, class, nationalism, eugenics, politics, poverty, industrialization, and health. The bigger concepts of inclusion and exclusion are touched upon, too.

"Deafness and Insight" is a challenging and complex chapter in which Davis explores "deafness as a critical modality." A main assertion throughout this book is that the concept of the "normal" body informs cultural assumptions about art, literature, and the totality, in fact, of culture.

Other chapters with much to offer and challenge the reader are "Universalizing Marginality," in which Davis explores the reasons behind the intense cultural and philosophical interest during the European eighteenth century of deafness. Health and 'fitness,' images of the 'normal' and the not-normal body, and the fact that disability is most often an acquired thing (you get hurt or get old - and wind up with a 'disability.') are investigated. Art, literature, and media are cited with success.

This is a book that is thought-provoking, remarkably informative, and completely worth the effort it requires. Dr. Davis'world view is clearly presented and wholly graspable. His methods of analysis are consistently intellectually muscular, Occasionally he ventures into academic methodologies that are a bit out of the range of the common reader. Tough stuff, and worth the effort. Many pages of endnotes, a (long) list of works cited, and a very good index.

This is an excellent book for both deaf and hearing people. As someone who is partly deaf and whose hearing is worsening with the years, the advice in this book was timely and needed both for me and for my family, all of whom hear perfectly. Time and again, I found the author writing just what I had been feeling or experiencing, as if she had been riding on my shoulder the past few years. And boy, can she write! Excellent prose, witty, graceful, and compelling. Some of the references may be out of date now but the wisdom of this book will never be. She addresses not only the practical sides of hearing loss but also the emotional, mental and spiritual sides in a manner that is never intrusive on one's own beliefs but always like listening to a loving and wise friend. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially for anyone in a family in which someone is losing their hearing and thus their life-giving contact with others.

This book is easy to read and leads the reader through a step-by-step process to developing an effective hearing conservation program. This book is recommended for anybody beginning a hearing conservation program or looking for ways to improve an existing program.

It is the best book that exists for consultation on genetic syndromic hearing loss, since in very organized form it treats the audiologic aspects perfectly and genetic of these syndromes.It is my favorite book and I recommend it to you if you are geneticist or audiologist.