This is usually a permanent hearing loss of the high frequencies or tones.

People with high-frequency loss.

• may not hear some of the consonants, such as 's'. Consonants provide the intelligibility of speech.

• The severity of the problem depends upon which tones are affected. This type of hearing loss cannot always be helped with hearing aids; again, this depends upon which frequencies need amplification.

• A high frequency hearing loss can cause misunderstanding or mishearing, even though the pupil appears to be hearing normally because he or she responds to speech.

• It may also cause the pupil to make spelling and grammatical errors, such as omitting verb and plural endings.

Recommendations to support pupils with a hearing impairment

• use a normal voice. Do not shout or exaggerate speech

• the pupil may need to supplement hearing with speech-reading, so ensure that he or she is seated in a favourable position, i.e. towards the front and to one side, in such a position that the light falls on the speakers' faces and not in the pupil's eyes.

• The pupil will also need to speech read classmates if there is evidence of mis-hearing other pupils' responses, repeat their contributions

• try not to speak behind the pupil with the hearing loss