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Hearing Tests For Infants

By: Rhonda Houseman

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Statistics indicate that every year, in the U.S. alone about 12,000 babies have permanent hearing loss. The National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management has come up with an alarming finding that three out of every 1,000 babies are born with some type of hearing loss, making this the most common birth defect.

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. Wearing hearing aids and undergoing therapy of some sort is quite common in children with hearing loss.

In extreme cases, doctors recommend what is known as cochlear implants. Hearing aids are ineffective when a part of the ear is damaged; but cochlear implants bypass the damaged part and deliver sounds straight to the auditory nerve. Even after using these devices, do not expect the hearing to return to its original level.

The best option, according to medical experts, is to get babies screened. The first few months of a baby?s life are the best time to start treatment because then they are able to develop their language skills early on.

A new procedure is helping in detecting hearing loss in babies right after birth. The newly introduced procedures ensure that if hearing loss is ascertained in the first six months from birth, the language development proceeds almost normally.

In most cases, hearing loss comes to light when children are about 22 months or a little later. Speech problems or poor progress on the language development front raises suspicions about hearing problems.

A new procedure can now help screen newborn babies for hearing problems even before they are allowed to the hospital.

Otacoustic Emissions can now be used to detect hearing problems in newborn babies. A soft probe is used for delivering sounds into the ear canal. The cochlea, or inner ear, produces an echo that is picked up by a microphone inside the same probe. This procedure lasts about 10 seconds for each ear, while any conventional procedure would have taken 10 minutes.

From the results of the OAE, those babies who seem to have hearing problems, are given the Auditory Brainstem Response test. On the baby?s head and shoulders are placed three electrodes to measure the auditory nerve?s responses to controlled sounds delivered through a disposable earphone as per the norms of the ABR test.

Fifteen minutes is all it takes for each ear.

Both these tests require that the babies must be asleep throughout the duration of the test. Hearing defects get identified, when the child is about 2 years old, quite by chance when parents report speech related problems or language development issues.

That is why, screening all babies is most advisable. This will be a boon for children because they can now expect to lead normal lives as well as develop their language skills like other children.

Diagnostic testing by an audiologist is required for babies who fail both these tests. This happens in about two percent of the cases.

Amplification equipment is now available to compensate the hearing loss of 2 to 3 month old infants. Such early help can ensure normal development of children.

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