Question

a)parents who are considering whether to have their 3-month-old daughter Samantha’s vision disorder corrected. Samantha’s disorder, which can be completely corrected only through surgery, involves an uneven curvature of the lens of each eyeball. Unless the problem is corrected, Samantha’s vision will forever be slightly out of focus in both eyes, even if she wears corrective eyeglasses or contact lens.

b) hearing parents who are considering whether to have ear surgery conducted to their 1-year-old son Steve. Steve is born deaf. With cochlear implant, Steve will be able to learn oral language, hearing and communicating effectively with his parents and other people.

The parents, who are understandably concerned about the dangers of performing any operation on so young a child, have several questions:

(1) Is there any evidence that our child’s vision problem or hearing problem should be corrected sooner rather than later in life? Why not wait until Samantha or Steve is older to correct the problem?

(2) If we choose not to have the surgery performed now, will Samantha’s and Steve's physical development (e.g., development of gross motor skills and fine motor skills) lag behind that of other children?

(3) What about Samantha’s and Steve's cognitive and social development? Could the visual problem or hearing problem affect these areas of her/his life?

Discuss the above three questions (reference all websites and sources).

Answer 1

1)Yes,  child’s vision problem or hearing problem should be corrected sooner rather than later in life.It is not wiser to wait until samantha and steve are older as as this might lead to serious  eye /ear conditions which could have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences such as complete loss of vision or complete loss of hearing.It has been reported that if treatment is done early as as before 6 months of age ,then the serious outcomes could be prevented.

2)Yes,Samantha’s and Steve's physical development (e.g., development of gross motor skills and fine motor skills) will lag behind that of other children.Fine and gross motor skills include the ability in children to use their small muscles (i.e fine motor)in particular their hands to do activities like holding something etc and large muscles (i.e gross motor) in the body to walk,jump etc. When their is no coordination between eye,ear and brain due to poor eye vision,this leads to impairment of the fine and gross motor skills.

3.Samantha’s and Steve's cognitive and social development would be affected and the  visual problem or hearing problem would be responsible for this.Development of a child depends on his cognitive and social development that occurs through his thinking skills,social and emotional skills speech and language skills ,fine and gross motor skills with the help of eye,ear and brain cordination and this is affected when there is ear and eye defect that is not treated at an early age.It has also been reported that hearing loss at an early age could affect the child's process of learning a language. Experts believe that the process of learning begins during the first months of life and if hearing problems are diagnosed and treated early, babies could avoid problems associated with language and speech development).Eye vision loss at an early age would cause learning impairment.

References

Reference:(Article :Vision and Hearing Screening Services for Children and Adolescents)

(Article :Help for Parents of Children With Hearing Loss)

(Article:What You Need to Know About Developmental Delays :By Amanda Morin)