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Hearing loss is one of the most common health handicapping conditions among children and adults. The hearing sense is the cornerstone upon which our unique human communication system is built.

This handicap therefore makes it very difficult for people to learn to speak a language, which impairs their ability to communicate naturally with other people. It also has a detrimental effect on personality and emotional development. It is easy to take hearing for granted as sound is such a common part of everyday life. To be able to understand how sound is perceived by people and the processes involved in hearing and hearing losses, we should have a closer look at the anatomy of the ear.

Anatomy of the ear

The ear can primarily be divided into three parts, namely:

• the outer ear
• the middle ear
• the inner ear

The outer ear

The outer ear consists of two parts, namely the external ear or ear lobe (pinna) and the ear canal. It is the part of the ear that one can see.
The ear lobe is flexible and consists of cartilage and skin. It functions as a sound receiver.
Sounds are sent down the ear canal. There is a soft membrane or skin between the outer ear and the middle ear, called the eardrum or tympanic membrane.

The middle ear

Sound waves travelling down the ear canal cause the eardrum to vibrate. Just behind the eardrum are three very small bones – the smallest bones in the body.
The bones are called the hammer (maleus), the anvil (incus) and the stirrup (stapes). The hammer is attached to the eardrum and the stirrup to membrane between the middle and inner ear.
The vibrations of the eardrum are transferred to these tiny bones in the middle ear, which in turn cause fluid in the inner ear to move in wave patterns.
The function of the middle ear is called a transmitting function.

The inner ear

The cochlea is the most important component of the inner ear with regard to hearing sounds. Within the cochlea are located the auditory sensory elements known as hair cells. Each hair cell has a delicate series of hairs that stick up into the fluids of the cochlea.
As fluid waves travel through the cochlea, the delicate hairs on the sensory nerve endings bend, creating neural impulses in the eighth cranial nerve (nerve acoesticus). These impulses are interpreted by the brain as sounds.
The fluids of the cochlea can also be sent into motion by vibrations carried through the skull. This is called bone conduction.

Perception of sound

The main aim of the working of the ear is the perception of sound. Let use an example: If Lisa says to George: "what is the time?" George will detect that someone is talking to him. He will discriminate speech sounds from other sounds, for example an aeroplane flying past or a car hooting. He will identify that someone is asking him a question about time and he will understand the question and react by answering: "It is three o' clock".
The ability to perceive what was heard (auditory perception) plays an important role in human communication.
There are many children whose hearing is within normal limits, but give the impression that they cannot hear. These children have an auditory perceptual problem. They have difficulty detection, discriminating, identifying or understanding sounds. An inability to listen effectively can hamper communication, the development of language abilities as well as most areas of their school work.
Children with auditory perceptual (listening skills) difficulties should be helped by a speech therapist. Parents can also help their children improve their listening and language skills by means of a home programme such as the Listening and Language Home Programme.

Location of sound

A person’s brain can work out where a sound is coming from. One’s brain receives messages from both ears. The ear closest to the sound hears first. This helps your brain work out where the sound is coming from. A person who cannot hear in one ear can therefore not locate the source of the sound.

Maiduguri - More than 130 Boko Haramfighters have surrendered to Nigerian forces, and a man posing as the group's leader in numerous videos had been killed in clashes, the military said on Wednesday.
The army has stepped up military operations against Boko Haram in the remote northeast since the rebels seized several small towns and declared the area they control a "Muslim territory".
The group, which has killed thousands in five years of hit-and-run attacks on military installations and civilians has grown increasingly ambitious in the past two months and started trying to take and hold ground in Africa's largest oil producer.
The army said 135 Boko Haram fighters had handed their weapons to troops on Tuesday in the northeast town of Biu, near the epicentre of Boko Haram's campaign to carve out an Islamist state.
The military added Boko Haram had also been trying to take over the town of Konduga, near the Cameroon border, from Sept. 12-17 but had been repelled by air and land forces.

"In the course of those encounters, one Mohammed Bashir, who has been acting or posing on videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau ... known as leader of the group, died," said Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade.
Throughout the militants' insurgency, which has morphed from a radical but relatively peaceful clerical movement into a bloodthirsty insurrection, a man claiming to be theleader, Abubakar Shekau, has periodically released videos of himself issuing threats and taunting the authorities.
One showed him claiming responsibility for the April abduction of 200 schoolgirls from the remote village of Chibok, which sparked an international outcry. They remain in captivity.
The military also released photographs of dozens of detainees sitting on the floor and the alleged body of the leader.
Shekau took over leadership of the movement after its founder Mohammed Yusuf died in police custody in 2009.
The military in August 2013 said Shekau may have died of gunshot wounds some weeks after a clash with soldiers between July 25 and August 4 that year.
After that, the man appearing in videos appeared to look different, with a rounder, less narrow face and a wider nose

Ekiti - Authorities in Ekiti State on Thursday ordered the immediate closure of all state courts there after political thugs backing the governor-elect, Ayodele Fayose, descended on a court, attacking a judge and other staff.

Hoodlums invaded the Ekiti State High Court  to disrupt proceedings in a case challenging the eligibility of the Governor-elect and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, Ayodele Fayose, to contest the June 21 governorship election

The assailants attacked Justice John Adeyeye, beating him up and ripping his clothes for being allegedly rude to Fayose.

The Chief Registrar of the state Judiciary, Obafemi Fasanmi, stated this in a statement in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday.

Fasanmi said the decision was taken as a result of series of attacks launched on the court premises by hoodlums since Monday which, he said, had continued unabated.

 He said the action of the chief judge had become necessary in order to protect the lives of judges and other judicial officers who were being harassed and man-handled by thugs on a daily basis.

The chief registrar said that a new date for the reopening of the courts would be announced later.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has asked the Nigerian Army to pardon 12 soldiers sentenced to death by firing squad after they were found guilty of mutiny.

At a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Acting President of the congress, Mr Promise Adewusi, said that such verdict was harsh, insensitive and unacceptable, as there were issues such as “unpaid allowance, poor kitting and equipping of troops leading to low morale, which should have constituted a justifying circumstance in favour of the convicted”. He stressed that true justice should go beyond legalism to addressing the fundamental issues in any given situation.
Mr Adewusi further urged the Nigerian military authorities to commute the judgment on the 12 soldiers to a lighter sentence as doing otherwise would not restore discipline but rather sow seeds of insecurity and disloyalty amongst the soldiers.
A court martial of the Nigerian Army sentenced the 12 soldiers to death by firing squad for attempted to murder a Major General, Ahmed Audu, the former General Commanding Officer of the Seven Division in Borno State.
Eighteen soldiers soldiers were on September 16 arraigned before the court martial in two batches of 11 and seven with charges ranging from mutiny, attempted murder, insubordination, false accusation, absent without leave and conduct to the prejudice of service discipline.
However, five of the soldiers were acquitted and discharged while a soldier was convicted and sentenced to 28 days imprisonment with hard labour
The 18 soldiers were arraigned on six count charges bothering on mutiny on May 14.