subject: Hearing Tests For Infants [print this page] Close to 12,000 babies each year suffer irreversible loss of hearing in the U.S.
The most common birth defect, according to the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management, is hearing loss of some kind with three out of every thousand babies affected.
The type of hearing loss can be so diverse that in some cases it can be just a gentle feeling of hearing trouble to severe cases of being unable to hear anything. It is quite a routine matter to provide some treatment, in conjunction with hearing aids, to children suffering from hearing loss.
In cases of the extreme kind, where the more commonplace treatment does not help, cochlear implants are the only option. Cochlear implants send signals directly to the auditory nerve even when a damaged part of the ear is unable to respond even to amplified sound coming from hearing aids.
The original level of hearing can never be brought back even after using the best of these devices.
The best way out is to screen babies as early as possible. To enable babies to build their language skills, it is essential that therapies are started within the first few months.
Newborn babies can now be screened for hearing loss immediately after birth. Modern procedures ensure that language development in newborn babies can proceed normally if hearing loss is detected within the first six months.
22 to 26 months is about the age at which hearing loss gets detected in children. Quite often, hearing problems do not get detected till they manifest themselves as either speech related issues or language development problems.
It is now possible to screen all newborn babies for hearing loss even before they leave the hospital.
Hearing problems in babies are now detected quite early by using Otacoustic Emissions. A soft probe is used for delivering sounds into the ear canal.
An echo like sound created by the inner ear is picked up by a microphone which is embedded in the same probe. The difference between this procedure and any conventional procedure is that it had reduced the screening time for each ear from 10 minutes to 10 seconds.
Babies who fail the OAE test are administered the Auditory Brainstem Response test. Three painless electrodes are attached to the baby?s head and shoulders to measure the hearing nerve?s response to sounds delivered by a throwaway earphone.
It takes only 15 minutes per ear.
Before starting these tests, doctors confirm that babies are sleeping. Many a times, around the age of 2 years, hearing problems manifest as speech or language development problems.
To eliminate the chance of babies having problems after growing up, it is best to screen all of them. Children will be able to develop their language skills better and also lead near normal lives forever.
An audiologist would be required for conducting a diagnostic testing only if a baby fails both these tests. About two percent of the babies have to undergo diagnostic testing.
For infants as small as two or three months, amplification equipment can be deployed to make up for hearing loss. Children can develop normally if such help is available early.
