Hearing Loss in Children

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Hearing Loss in Children

  • Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) refers to the process of screening every newborn for hearing loss prior to hospital discharge, whereby infants not passing the screening receive appropriate diagnostic evaluation before three months of age and, when necessary, are enrolled in early intervention programs by six months of age.
  • Hearing screening is a test to tell if a child might have hearing loss. Hearing screening is easy and is not painful. In fact, babies are often asleep while being screened. It takes a very short time — usually only a few minutes.
  • The earlier a hearing loss is detected in infants the better the outcome for language and speech development.
  • In children, hearing loss can be confused with a learning disability when, in fact, the child might not be hearing clearly what the teacher is saying.
  • Even a mild hearing loss or a one-sided hearing loss can affect school work. Research has shown that on average, children with mild hearing loss perform poorer than their normally-hearing peers and may need to repeat a grade.
  • More than ever, young people are at risk for hearing loss because of repeated exposure to loud sounds from musical instruments, MP3 and iPod players and any personal listening device inserted in the ear. Any sort of sound can cause a permanent hearing loss if it is loud enough and lasts long enough.

 

Hearing Loss Association of America

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