hearing loss and the criminal justice system - Australian Indigenous ...

Senate Inquiry March 2010_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Auditory Processing Problems impact on communication in many large institutional settings.For example, in facilities such as schools or remand and detention centres that congregatepeople together increases the noise levels. The capacity of the individual to control theirlistening environment is also reduced in these settings.Some of the signs that Auditory Processing Problems may exist are as follows (Patton, 2004).People may: Interpret words too literally; Often need remarks repeated; Ask many extra informational questions; Have difficulty following a series of directions; Have difficulty remembering information that has been presented verbally; Hear better when watching the person who is speaking; Have problems hearing when there is background noise present.Between seven and ten per cent of the general population are thought to be affected byAuditory Processing Problems (Hogan & Moore, 2003; Rowe, Rowe & Pollard, 2001). In astudy involving six Northern Territory Independent schools and 1050 Indigenous secondarystudents, 38 per cent showed indications of Auditory Processing Problems (Yonovitz &Yonovitz, 2000). Given that this study was based on secondary school students whoattended school, it did not include students who had no longer attended school because ofproblems related to listening or who were absent for reasons that may have includedhearing related problems (Couzos, 2004). It is likely, therefore, that the findings in this studyunderestimate the proportion of Indigenous secondary students with Auditory ProcessingProblems.HEARING LOSS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMThe high incidence of middle ear disease in Aboriginal communities contributes to massivelevels of Conductive Hearing Loss among Aboriginal children. It has been estimated that, onaverage, Aboriginal children have middle ear disease for more than two and a half yearsduring their childhood. The equivalent figure for non‐Aboriginal children is three months(OATSIH, 2001). Although middle ear disease is usually considered a health problem, it alsocontributes to poor social and emotional outcomes. The West Australian Aboriginal ChildHealth Survey (WAACHS) found significantly poorer social and emotional wellbeing forchildren who had ‘runny ears’ (caused by perforation of the eardrum) than other Aboriginalchildren (Zubrick et al., 2005). Childhood hearing loss has also been found to contributesignificantly to learning and behavioural problems at school (Howard, 2004). Aboriginalchildren with Conductive Hearing Loss were found to tease other children more, peers oftenrejected them socially and they are more disruptive in class than other students (Howard,2005).The behaviour problems of Indigenous students at school pave the way for their laterinvolvement in the criminal justice system. There is evidence that a higher proportion ofIndigenous prison inmates have some degree of hearing loss when compared with the_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 Phoenix Consulting