Deria Pendengaran itu Nikmat dari yang Esa - Ramadhan Mubarak

Ramadhan tiba..Ramadhan tiba...

Marhaban Ya Ramadhan... Marhaban Ya Ramadhan... Marhaban Ya Ramadhan... Marhaban Ya Ramadhan...

-Nyanyian Opick-

Kini Ramadhan sudah tiba dan seluruh umat Islam akan menjalani rukun Islam yang ketiga iaitu berpuasa selama sebulan. Ramadhan la saat yang ditunggu- tunggu kerana ibadah yang dilakukan dalam bulan ini akan mendapat ganjaran pahala yang berganda serta banyak lagi kelebihan serta fadhilat Ramadhan nuzul Quran dan malam lailatul Qadar. Yang pasti, kita semua akan meraikan kemenengan Ramadhan semasa Aidilfitri nanti.  

Umumnya, semua muslimin dan muslimat tahu yang berpuasa adalah menahan diri daripada lapar dan dahaga serta hubungan suami isteri dari terbit fajar hinggalah terbenamnya matahari. Sebenarnya, puasa ni bukan itu sahaja, tetapi deria kita pun perlu berpuasa.. Deria berpuasa? Macam mana tu?

Dalam artikel yang ditulis oleh Ustaz Iqbal Zain, menjelaskan bahawa Imam Al-Ghazali menyebutkan bahawa puasa mempunyai 3 tingkat iaitu puasa umum, puasa khusus dan puasa khusus dari yang khusus. Jadi, puasa deria adalah termasuk dalam puasa khusus iaitu mencegah pendengaran, penglihatan, lidah, kaki, tangan dan seluruh anggota tubuh lain daripada dosa.

Antara tips puasa deria adalah mendengar, melihat, bercakap perkara yang baik- baik serta menggunakan kaki ke tempat yang baik dan menggunakan tangan untuk perkara yang baik. Contoh perkara yang baik adalah seperti mendengar ceramah dan hadir ke majlis- majlis ilmu dan aktiviti- aktiviti yang bermanfaat.

Selain tips kesihatan, misalnya, cara penjagaan telinga dan pendengaran seperti larangan daripada menggunakan ‘cotton bud’ untuk mengorek telinga dan jauhkan diri daripada terdedah kepada bunyi bising yang agak lama, kita juga perlu mengamalkan tips puasa deria bagi mensyukuri nikmat yang Allah telah kurniakan. 

Allah telah berfirman dalam surah Fussilat ayat 20,

Maksudnya: “ Sehingga apabila mereka sampai ke neraka, (maka) pendengaran dan penglihatan serta kulit- kulit badan mereka menjadi saksi terhadap mereka, mengenai apa yang mereka telah kerjakan”.

Ayat ini menjelaskan bahawa, deria dan anggota badan kita akan menjadi saksi di akhirat atas segala yang telah kita lakukan semasa hidup di dunia.

Justeru, marilah kita semua menjaga deria dan anggota badan kita seiring dengan apa yang dituntut dan diajar dalam agama Islam. Hargai semua yang dikurniakan oleh Allah sebaiknya.  

Wallahu’alam. 

Shahirah Ismail

Audiologist 

Eartistic Kota Bharu, Kelantan

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Down Syndrome : Hearing Impairment and early preparation and intervention.

1 in 800 children in the world has down syndrome.

80% of children with Down Syndrome suffers from hearing impairment. It can be caused by middle ear (conductive loss) or inner ear issues (sensorineural hearing loss).  A lot of precautions needed to be aware about when it comes to preparing a child with Down Syndrome as early intervention is the key.

As a pregnant woman i am right now, i too am very anxious when it comes to what to expect of the little one that i am carrying. But being an audiologist, i have been exposed to the importance of early intervention hence i have the courage to visit the sonographer and since i am an eager fan of prenatal screening. Nowadays, preparation for mothers to be are amazing and you can know as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy if you are carrying a child with down syndrome. It is imperative that us parents to check our little ones if they need early intervention or extra early care in advance.

As statistics and studies has further agreed that children with down syndrome also will go through a degree of mental retardation from mild to severe which further enhances the fact that these children needs early intervention. 

When they are born, precautions on how they are fed is important to avoid middle ear issues such as their middle ear tube ie: eustachian tube can be dysfuntional easily as they have a flatter tubing compared to us adults due to exposure to adult smoking or feeding milk while they are laid flat etc.

Our test battery to assists parents in understanding their childs status of hearing would be :

1- Hearing screening

- Otoscopic Examination

- Tympanometry

- Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR) with inserts (to avoid collapsed ear canal)

- Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE)

Then, if found to have hearing impairment, further diagnostic assessment will be done.

2- Diagnostic Hearing Assessment

- Otoscopic Examination

- Tympanometry

- Diagnostic Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) with inserts  (to avoid collapsed ear canal)

- oacoustic Emissions (OAE)

At birth, you can see their beautiful features :

• flat facial features
• small head and ears
• short neck
• bulging tongue
• eyes that slant upward  
• atypically shaped ears   
• poor muscle tone

Having said that, so many successful real life stories of these individuals i have encountered. My own daughter had an assistant kindergarten teacher with down syndrome, cousins and friends who are attending school because they had an amazing exposure and early intervention when they had the window of opportunity (0-5yo) for early intervention.

In Malaysia, we have Kiwanis and Persatuan Sindrom Down to name a few to support parents and children with Down  Syndrome. The support available is just incredible and as i have said before, children with down syndrome can have a bright bright future with early intervention.

Before i end this piece, here is an amazing story about this "Johns Crazy Socks". John’s Crazy Socks is a father-son venture inspired by John Lee Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome, and his love of colorful and fun socks, or what he calls his “crazy socks.” Crazy or not, to me its amazing and i wish for more successful stories from our community in Malaysia. 

The world is our oyster, if we know our strength..

As a parent, " their world is their oyster, as long as we know in advance their strength".

To parents out there, family, friends with down syndrom children, may the force be with you and do share with us your success stories so more parents in our community are empowered!

Love,

Dr Shasa Aziz

CEO and Founder of Eartistic Sdn Bhd

References:

http://www.puravidasanantonio.com/kids-chiropractor/childhood-ear-infections/

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42353259 

https://www.healthline.com/health/down-syndrome#symptoms

Catch our promotion this month.
Free Hearing Assessment for anyone Down Syndrome  from the 26th -31st of March 2016.
Call us to book your appointment within this week or book an appt on our website.

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PENDENGARAN ANAK ANAK ANDA

Langkah awal perlulah diambil dalam mengatasi masalah pendengaran terutama di kalangan kanak-kanak. Masalah pendengaran di usia kecil boleh mendatangkan kesan buruk terhadap perkembangan bahasa dan pertuturan kanak-kanak tersebut, seterusnya akan merencat perkembangan sosial, komunikasi dan psikologi individu berkenaan. Masalah pendengaran perlu dikesan sejak kecil (umur < 3 bulan) agar pemasangan alat bantu dengar yang bersesuaian serta program rawatan seterusnya dapat dilakukan.

Ini adalah bertujuan untuk mengurangkan kesan masalah pendengaran yang dihadapi oleh kanak-kanak.

Berikut merupakan RISIKO kepada masalah pendengaran yang perlu ibu bapa tahu dan peka

 

1. Menghidap demam kuning yang teruk sehingga memerlukan penukaran darah selepas dilahirkan.
2. Telinga sering berair atau bernanah
3. Dilahirkan sangat kecil (berat badan kurang 1.5kg)
4. Tidak menangis sebaik sahaja dilahirkan
5. Ibu mendapat jangkitan seperti rubella, siphlis, herpes, cytomegalo  virus dll jangkitan kuman semasa mengandung
6. Ibu terdedah kepada radiasi (X-ray ,MRI dll) semasa mengandung.
7. Ibu mengambil ubat ototoksik semasa mengandung (anti-histamin, 
8. anti-diuretik dan lain lain)
9. Ibu mengambil dadah atau menghisap rokok semasa mengandung

Manakala berikut merupakan SIMPTOM kanak- kanak yang mempunyai masalah pendengaran :

1. Tidak bertindak balas terhadap bunyi    
2. Tidak bertindak balas terhadap panggilan nama sendiri
3. Tidak memahami / silap memahami arahan
4. Kelihatan tidak memberikan tumpuan
5. Lebih banyak menunggu dan melihat apa yang dilakukan oleh orang lain dahulu sebelum melakukan sebarang tugas
6. Membaca bibir, melihat isyarat visual, ekspresi muka dan gerak
   tangan daripada mendengar
7. Lewat bertutur (speech delay)
8. Lebih banyak menunjuk dengan jari dari bercakap
9. Menonjolkan sikap yang ganjil ketika berinteraksi dengan
   kawan-kawan (contoh : mengasingkan diri)

Disediakan oleh,

Fatihah Othman

(Pembantu Audiologis, Eartistic Hearing and Balance Centre)

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KESEIMBANGAN BADAN

Untuk mengetahuan anda, terdapat banyak jenis gangguan keseimbangan badan (Balance Disorder). Salah satu gangguan yang paling kerap didiagnosis adalah Penyakit Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. Bagi tujuan artikel ini, saya akan membincangkan tentang penyakit Menieres (Menieres Disease) yang merangkumi semua simptom-simptom masalah telinga.

PENYAKIT MENIERE (MENIERE’S DISEASE)

Penyakit Meniere adalah gangguan di telinga dalam yang menyebabkan episod di mana anda merasakan pening yang berpusing (vertigo), mengalami masalah pendengaran, berdesing dalam telinga (tinnitus) dan rasa penuh atau tekanan di telinga anda.

4 SIMPTOM PENYAKIT MENIERE : 

Vertigo
Anda merasakan pening yang berpusing bermula dan berhenti secara spontan. Episod vertigo berlaku secara tiba-tiba dan biasanya berlangsung hingga beberapa jam, tetapi tidak melebihi 24jam. Vertigo yang teruk boleh menyebabkan mual dan muntah. 

Masalah pendengaran
 

Kehilangan pendengaran dalam Penyakit Meniere boleh dikategorikan masalah pendengaran jenis sementara, terutamanya pada awal. Tetapi akhirnya, kebanyakan orang mengalami masalah pendengaran jenis kekal. 

 

Tinnitus 

 

Tinnitus adalah persepsi tentang bunyi berdesing, berdering, berdengung, atau bersiul di telinga anda. Ia adalah gejala sesuatu keadaan, seperti kehilangan pendengaran berkaitan dengan usia, kecederaan telinga atau gangguan sistem peredaran darah.  

 

Rasa penuh di telinga

Anda sering merasakan penuh atau tekanan di dalam telinga. 

 

KOMPLIKASI 

 

Episod vertigo yang tidak dapat diramalkan dan kehilangan pendengaran kekal boleh menjadi masalah yang paling sukar dalam Penyakit Meniere. Penyakit ini boleh mengganggu hidup anda dan menyebabkan keletihan, tekanan emosi, kemurungan dan kebimbangan. 

 

Vertigo boleh menyebabkan anda kehilangan keseimbangan, meningkatkan risiko jatuh dan kemalangan semasa memandu. 

TIPS-TIPS MENGURANGKAN SIMPTOM VERTIGO PADA PESAKIT MENIERES  

1. Segera duduk jika gangguan keseimbangan muncul. dan pegang sesuatu supaya anda tahu anda selamat. 
2. Menggerakkan kepala secara perlahan-lahan untuk mengelakkan tiba-tiba jatuh (hanya waktu serangan vertigo yang aktif). 
3. Elakkan makanan yang mempunyai garam berlebihan dan MSG, minuman berkafein, dan merokok. 
4. Kenali hal-hal utama yang menyebabkan gangguan keseimbangan anda supaya anda boleh hindari dari awal. 
5. Gunakan bau-bauan "essential oil" seperti peppermint atau eucalyptus untuk menggantikan fokus rangsangan sensori keseimbangan ke sensori bau. 
6. Dapatkan seseorang untuk memicit bahu anda untuk menukar fokus  dari sensori kesimbangan ke sensori rasa

Jika anda mengalami salah satu simptom-simptom seperti di atas, saya sarankan anda berjumpa dengan pakar audiologi atau doktor pakar ORL untuk mendapatkan ujian dan rawatan lanjut.  Jika anda ada sebarang pertanyaan atau ingin membuat temujanji boleh hubungi kami di talian tertera. Anda juga boleh buat penyediaan awal sebelum berjumpa dengan kami di Eartistic. Untuk maklumat lanjut, sila  ke http://eartisticmalaysia.blogspot.my/2018/01/preparing-for-your-audiologist.html

    

Ditulis oleh,

Nabilla Azmi

Ketua Jururawat Eartistic Hearing & Balance Centre dan Hearing Aid Dispenser

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PREPARING FOR YOUR AUDIOLOGIST APPOINTMENT

Happy New Year 2018 to dearest readers and clients! Hopefully it is not too late to wish you all a joyous and successful year ahead. I am pretty sure most of us have prepared ourselves for the New Year with a long list of 2018 resolution. For parents with school-aged children, it must be exciting preparing your children mentally and physically for the new term. While for working individuals, you must have prepared yourself for new goals as an employee. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Notice how many times the word PREPARE appears in the above paragraph? Indeed preparation is an important aspect in our daily life. 

So as a start for 2018, I would like to share a simple topic but can greatly contribute to a successful audiologist appointment. Let’s have a look at the tips to prepare yourselves to meet your audiologist:
  

1. PRE BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT
    Booking your appointment in advance will keep you from the hassle of waiting when you
    arrived at the centre. You surely do not want to wake up and arrive very early but ended up
    waiting for an hour or two because of the long list of clients who had pre booked their
    sessions. This is especially true when you plan for an appointment for your little kids.
    To ensure you have a smooth day, make a call or send an email to your preferred audiology
    centre to book a session which best suits to your time.
    With that, you can make the most of your time during the session as well as for the rest of
    the day after your session ends. 

2. LIST DOWN YOUR CONCERN, SYMPTOMS, MEDICAL HISTORY AND LIFESTYLE
    It is a standard procedure in any audiologist appointment to ask you questions at the
    beginning of the session. So do not get panic when you are given a set of
    questionnaire for you to fill in.
    Instead, few days before your appointment, take a moment to think about
    your condition and concern, medical history and lifestyle or any simple details that you
    think are related to your reason for seeing an audiologist at the first place. If you are not
    good at memorizing (wait, that’s me), write down all those information on a piece of paper.
    All your input will significantly help the audiologist to determine suitable assessments and
    management for you.

3. BRING RELATED DOCUMENTS
    If you have any related documents (if you think it is related to your current audiology
    condition) such as referral letters or your previous hearing assessments report, bring it
    together with you. This could give some idea or info to your audiologist to the current
    condition you have.

4. DO YOUR RESEARCH
    Prepare yourself by doing simple reading on your condition either you are experiencing 
    hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problem or if you decides to buy hearing aids. 
    Get yourself exposed to some of the terminology so that you won’t be totally clueless during
    your first visit. This can help you to understand the audiologist explanation easier and save
    you some time too. For a start, you can read about hearing loss at this link:

    http://eartisticmalaysia.blogspot.my/2017/04/how-bad-it-is-when-someone-suffers-from.html

5. LIST DOWN QUESTIONS
    Remember the time you went for your first dentist appointment? Or the first time
    you met your future in laws? Or maybe the first time you went on a date? Do you have any
    regrets after leaving for not asking questions or doing things that you have set in mind earlier
    on? Exactly, this can also happen to you during your audiologist appointment and surely it
    can happen to anyone. Especially if this is your first time to see an audiologist,
    you can get a bit overwhelm with the new inputs provided to you.
    Keep calm and make sure you write down your questions before the
    appointment day. Never ever think that a question is too simple or ridiculous to be asked.
    Never underestimate the power of asking.

6. BRING A FAMILY MEMBER OR FRIENDS
    If you are not confident to go alone, bring a family member or a friend to your appointment.
    If it is your parents or husband or wife who is scheduled for the appointment, take time to
    accompany them. Having someone accompanying you can be a great of help as they might
    have questions which you might have not think about or they can take notes on important
    information that you might have missed. Two heads is always better than one :)

With all these tips, I hope you get to make the most out of your visit to your preferred audiology centre. Remember to always prepare beforehand and if you are in doubt, give a call to your chosen audiology centre. There will always someone to help you.

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” 

― H.J. Brown

We Hear You.

Written by,

Tasnim Hazizan
Audiologist & Product specialist
Eartistic Hearing & Balance Centre
#HearingIsALuxury
#hearingforlife
#MendengarItuNikmat

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Unnoticed Hearing Loss in Children

Children learn many thing s via interaction with their environment. They use their senses to gain input from the environment mostly while  playing. One of the senses, which are crucial for a child’s development is hearing.

Nowadays , it is common procedure for hospital and hearing care centre to do Newborn Hearing Screening, thus, giving an early idea of a newborn  hearing status .

Parents  and caretakers are advised to  to monitor a child development according to the guidelines available,such as  Paediatric  Protocols  for Malaysian Hospitals, 3rd Edition. Below are the excerpts of the guideline ;-

 

 

Despite undivided attention to the needs and care of children, there  might be some  situations where hearing loss in children might go unnoticed  by the parents:

1.     Unilateral hearing loss:

Only one ear is having hearing problem and the other ear is normal hearing. A child will have   have  normal speech and language skills  however there might trouble  with sound localization. 

2.     Mild hearing loss :

Mild hearing loss is in between 25 to 40 dBHL either in one or both ears. The hearing might be adequate for communication but there are  difficulties with soft sounds or  understanding speech when in noisy environment .

3.     Progressive or gradual hearing loss :

 Although a child passed hearing screening during infancy (Newborn Hearing Screening) , there are cases of hearing loss that starts and gets progressively worse after infantile stage.

4.     Partial  hearing  loss: 

Usually  this concerns high frequency loss where speech clarity is diminished while the loudness of speech is still  normal. “ I can hear people talking, i just cant understand them .”

Seek a hearing professional if you are suspicious about a childs hearing status. Parents’  instinct and suspicion should NEVER be taken lightly as a reason for an assessment as they are more aware of their child ‘s progress and development. Hearing impairment will  lead to issues in a child’s social development and may lead to further psychosocial problems  as they grow up.

Early assesment leads to early intervention and early intervention may lead to  better outcome.

Written by,

Faiz Salleh

Eartistic Hearing and Balance Centre, Audiologist at Kota Bharu

References:
Lang-Roth R (2014) ,  Hearing impairment and language delay in infants: Diagnostics and genetics , GMS Curr Top Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg.

J H hedges et al  (2013) , Play, attention, and learning: How do play and timing shape the development of attention and influence classroom learning?   Ann N Y Acad Sci.

S C P M theunissen et al (2015), Symptoms of Psychopathology in Hearing-Impaired Children , Ear Hear.

A M Korver et al ( 2010) , Newborn hearing screening vs later hearing screening and developmental outcomes in children with permanent childhood hearing impairment., JAMA.

Paediatric Protocols for Malaysian Hospitals , 3rd Edition.

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