Nvq Level 3, Unit 41 - How to Conduct a Hearing Test

2017 Words9 Pages
Conduct Hearing Assessments Health and Social NVQ Level 3 Unit 41 Anatomy & Physiology of the Human Ear How The Ear Works Sounds make tiny particles in the air vibrate. The vibrations travel through the air and hit your ears. The vibrations are collected in the pinna then travel down the external auditory meatus or ear canal until they hit the tympanic membrane which is a very thin layer of skin, this is better known as our eardrum and they in turn make our eardrum vibrate. These vibrations are passed on through the bones in the middle part of our ear which in turn hit each other through the vibrations which makes the sound louder until the final bone, the stapes or otherwise known as the stirrup which is the smallest bone in the body hits the cochlea sending the sound to the inner ear. The cochlea is full of liquid and lined with cells that have tiny hair cells on them which are the start of the auditory nerve. The vibrations make ripples in the liquid that is in the cochlea and the ripples move the very tiny and sensitive hair cells. The hair cells carry this information through the auditory nerve to the brain which then interprets what we actually hear. The semicirular canals control our balance, each of the three canals sense a different movement ie; upwards, downwards, sideways. If we spin around quickly the fluid in these canals moves around quickly and if we then stop we can feel slightly dizzy until the fluid settles down again in the canals. There are several different types of hearing impairment: Conductive:- this is due to a condition that affects the transmission of sound in either the outer or middle ear. In most cases this type of hearing loss is treatable. In conductive hearing loss sound waves are not transmitted to the inner ear due to some kind of interference in the outer or middle ear. The type of

More about Nvq Level 3, Unit 41 - How to Conduct a Hearing Test

Open Document