Spotting Childhood Hearing Loss Early

The time to recognize that a child has a hearing problem is as soon after birth as possible – and yet our record for making those recognitions is not good. This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis.

According to a conference convened by the National Institute of Health, today’s standard for screening infants for hearing loss misses over half of the children with hearing loss. And the problem is not the techniques; it’s failure to screen them at all.

If a child has a significant hearing defect during the first years of life, his or her lifelong ability to form speech properly can be affected.

The number of U.S. children affected by a hearing disorder at birth is large; about 1 in a thousand infants is born deaf or with a severe hearing disorder. But, according to the NIH “fewer than half of these infants are recognized as being hearing impaired until the condition has already compromised speech and language development.” The NIH recommends that all infants’ hearing be screened before they leave the hospital and those who miss that opportunity should be screened by 3 months of age.

But the vigilance shouldn’t stop there. Some 20 to 30% of children with impaired hearing develop it after the newborn period, so hearing should be periodically checked by the child’s doctor or through school programs. Speaking of Health, I’m Dr. Steven Andrew Davis for CBS News.