Patient's question:
NoDoctor's answer:
The commonly referred condition known as deafness and mutism is a disorder that encompasses both auditory and language impairments. Any individual born with or who experiences severe deafness during early childhood, unable to hear spoken words, and consequently unable to learn to speak, or who initially learns to speak but later loses this ability again due to deafness, is termed as suffering from deafness and mutism. Deaf individuals cannot speak because there is no lesion in the central or peripheral parts of the language system, but rather because hearing impairment prevents the possibility of imitation learning; the loss of the ability to hear and distinguish language; and thus the inability to self-correct. Deafness is the cause, while mutism is the result.