By Kristen Toole and Reva Batheja
This article is a part of the January/February 2022, Volume 34, Number 1, Audiology Today issue.
Over the past three decades, the audiology community has come together nationwide to develop guidelines, shape legislation, and rewrite the journey for infants with congenital hearing loss. Prior to the implementation of newborn hearing-screening programs in the 1990s, less than 10 percent of newborns in the United States had their hearing screened (National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), 2017).
In 2019, nearly 98 percent of newborns in the United States had their hearing screened before one month of age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2021). This has been regarded as one of the most successful and rapid examples of research moving into clinical practice in pediatric public health history.
Early identification is critical; however, it must be followed by appropriate, family-centered intervention to achieve optimal outcomes. Untreated hearing loss can have detrimental effects on speech and language development and can adversely impact a child’s cognitive, educational, emotional, and social skills (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) 2007).
Hearing aids fit to prescribed targets that are used consistently in language-rich environments can mitigate or completely prevent these negative repercussions (Ching et al, 2017). A 10-year study of more than 300 children found that children who wore their hearing aids more than 10 hours per day had greater language growth than children who wore their hearing aids less than 10 hours per day (Tomblin et al, 2015).
Today’s clinicians are tasked with managing very young infants and technologies that are more advanced than ever before. With this, comes a great responsibility to maximize outcomes by selecting hearing aids with pediatric-friendly features, fitting and verifying hearing aids to maximize speech audibility, and supporting consistent use of devices.
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