Lakewood, NJ – You may think hearing impairment is uncommon in newborns, yet it is the most common congenital condition in the United States. Every day, 33 infants are born with some degree of hearing loss, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“If not detected early, the effects of congenital hearing loss can be great. Hearing loss affects speech development, social, emotional, economical well being, and learning,” explains Sue Ellen Boyer, AuD, a clinical audiologist on staff at Kimball Medical Center.
Research shows that infants identified with hearing impairment at birth have a greater opportunity to develop within the normal range of language comprehension, verbal expression, and psychosocial development than do children identified later.
At Kimball Medical Center, all newborns can be screened using a test called Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), Boyer notes. “The goal of a hearing screening is to determine if the ear and its pathway to the brain are working together to identify a certain stimulus,” she says.
The ABR is a non-invasive test to evaluate the relationship between what the ear hears and how the brain receives the information. The child is fit with little earphones, each of which presents a clicking stimulus. Through jelly sensors strategically placed on the child’s upper body, it can be determined if the child hears the stimulus, as well as if the stimulus reaches the brain stem in a timely manner.
“The appropriate screening and identification of newborns and infants with hearing loss will facilitate early intervention and treatment in the critical time period for language development,” says Boyer.
If a child does not pass an inpatient and an outpatient screen, “the next step is to determine the extent of the loss,” she says. An Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) consultation and more diagnostic testing are appropriate to diagnose the type of and severity of the hearing loss.
Results on these tests will assist in determining a treatment plan, which may consist of surgery, hearing aids or medication. It is up to the audiologist to inform the parent of the need for further evaluation. “However if the parent neglects or downplays this, the child may suffer from delays and other impairments. The most obvious is the difficulty in learning language,” observes Boyer. “As early as birth, children are learning from their environments, including the voices of their parents or sounds around them. If children cannot hear the sounds, they cannot learn them and consequently, utilize them later.”
As a result, certain children may not be able to develop a vocabulary or appropriate articulation skills, she continues. Due to the inability to communicate, the aging child may withdraw, feel depressed, demonstrate abnormal behavior, and/or do poorly in school. Therefore, an untreated newborn may have long-term consequences. “Do not let this happen, as even a child with a hearing loss can develop on a normal path if treated within an appropriate time frame,” Boyer emphasizes.
For children not screened for hearing loss at birth, the average age of identification is around 2-1/2 years, well after the most critical period for language development has passed. Many people do not realize that hearing aids and therapy are available for infants as soon as they are a few weeks old.
“With a newborn hearing screening program at Kimball, we can identify the many needs of children born with hearing loss and extend help to their families with this information,” notes Boyer.
Having identified those infants who are hearing impaired, “we can provide the appropriate medical, audiological and educational follow-up to give these newborns the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential. This is a valuable program, one we are proud to implement for newborns,” she says.
For more information on newborn hearing tests at Kimball Medical Center, please call the Barnabas Health Care Link at 1-888-724-7123.
Date: January 25, 2010
CONTACT: Carrie Cristello
Director, Public Relations
732-923-6552
ccristello@barnabashealth.org
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