Neonatal hearing screening also known as early hearing detection and intervention programs in several countries refer to those services aimed at the early identification, intervention and follow up of infants who are all vulnerable with hard of hearing. It’s important to know what to expect as our babies grow, because hearing problems can delay the development of speech and language skills. In 1970, the American speech and hearing association, American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, American Academy of Paediatrics to form a national Joint committee on infant hearing (JCIH). The committee issued a supplementary statement that included a condensed list of criteria for identifying a neonate as being at risk for hearing impairment. Hearing loss is one of the most common birth conditions in new-borns with high risk factors. The incidence of congenital permanent hearing loss will be growing from 5.6 to13.6 per 100 births by 2020 reported by world health organisation (WHO). Universally new-born hearing screening (UNHS) as a program uses physiologically measures to screen for hearing loss of the infant before discharge or before one month of age. Therefore, all new-borns should be assessed with hearing screening using a physiologic measure. Early identification of hearing loss in new-borns is a great challenging process, a systematic protocol-based hearing evaluation should be carried out to overcome the challenge and to diagnose hearing loss without delay. Early diagnosis of hearing loss can help the child to undergo early intervention and develop speech-language skills without delay[1-5].

References

1. American Academy of Pediatrics.“Joint Committee on Infant Hearing- Year 2007 position statement”. Pediatrics 120.4 (2007): 898-921.
2. Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program- National centre on birth defects and developmental disabilities. American Academy of Audiology (2007).
3. National institute on deafness and communication disorders, NIH Pub. No. 10-4040 (2015).
4. Olubunmi V Akinpelu., et al. “Otoacoustic emissions in newborn hearing screening: A systematic review of the effects of different protocols on test outcomes”. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology78.5 (2014): 711-717.
5. Bolajoko O Olusanya. “Highlights of the new WHO Report on newborn and Infant Hearing screening and implications for developing countries”. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 75.6 (2011): 745-748.

Citation

Citation: Saravana Jayabalan.“Early Identification of Hearing Loss in New-Borns - A Challenging Process". Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 3.6 (2021):122-123.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Saravana Jayabalan.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.