8.5million Nigerians are living with hearing impairments – Don

Segun Showunmi in Ibadan.

The President, Speech Pathologists and Audiologists Association in Nigeria (SPAAN), Prof Julius Ademokoya, has revealed that 8.5million Nigerians are living with hearing impairments, adding that studies have shown that the number keeps on increasing.

Penpushing reports that Ademokoya said this while addressing journalists on Thursday at Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ) Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan, to commemorate the International month of Hearing and Speech for 2020, theme: ‘Promoting Better Hearing and Speech in Nigeria.’

“Nigeria has less than 300 audiologists to attend to people with hearing issues, hence, the need for government to encourage more people to become audiologists’, the association President emphasised.

The programme, was was organised by association in collaboration with Smile Train Incorporation, and supported by the Vice President of the association, Prof Oyedunni Arulogun, and a Consultant/Partner with Smile Train Incorporation, dealing with free surgeries for children suffering from cleft palate, Dr. Adeola Olusanya.

“We are in the era of danger of more people losing their hearing and speech systems. In 1999 when a research was conducted, more than 7.3 million people had problems with their auditory system in Nigeria. But the recent data revealed that the number has increased and currently 8.5million people in Nigeria have hearing problems”,Ademokoya said

Penpushing further reports that  he stated that people are daily exposed to things that could make them lose their hearing functions, including gunshots, abuse of earpieces, and noise pollution, adding that there has not been statistics to show the number of people that have speaking problems.

The President  suggested that government should come up with legislations that would make every parent to take their children to appropriate health facilities for early detection of hearing and speaking problems for treatment before getting out of hand, adding that when the problem is detected early, there are possibilities that the issues would be resolved.

Penpushing also reports that, he  advised government to set up centres in each local government, where people that have hearing and speaking problems can access healthcare, instead of travelling to the state capitals to access such healthcare, emphasising the need for people to protect their auditory system through hearing conservation.

The association boss  said  that in a bid to ensure better verbal communication culture, advised government to ensure that every child is screened as early as possible for corrective surgery, saying introduction of speech correction as a subject at primary school level and speech education as general education study (GES) for students in tertiary institutions irrespective of courses of study, should be given attention.

“When you grow, your voice must grow with you too. But some elderly people also speak like children, which means their voices did not grow with them. It is a challenge. When you see women that speak and their voices are like of men. It is not normal. If the challenge has been detected early, it would have been corrected. The issue should be detected and corrected before the child begins to speak.