The Tympanic Membrane is the first important structure in the Middle Ear.
When children stick things in their ears the condition can last for a long time. The impact of a sustained conductive hearing loss on speech and language development in a young child could be considerable.
Some children are born without a Pinna or an External Auditory Meatus. In the case of the Pinna, in the old days, long hair simply covered the loss. Today, in both cases, plastic surgery can do wonders for both appearances and hearing.
The Middle Ear: The beginning of the Middle Ear is the Ear Drum (if this was CD 261), but seeng that this is a 300 level course we will call it the Tympanic Membrane.
Some texts include this as part of the outer ear. But God confided in me that this is not the case. She said that it is really part of the middle ear system that actually increases the loudness of sound as it is conducted into the Inner Ear.