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| Newborn
Hearing Screening
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| Hearing impairment is
the most common disability at birth. Every year nearly 24,000 babies are
born in the United States with hearing impairments. "For children not
screened for hearing loss at birth, the average age of identification is
2-1/2 to 3 years of age, well after the most critical period for language
development has passed," explains Barb Nimocks, Richland Hospital
Birth Center Unit Coordinator. "Many people do not realize that
hearing aids and therapy are available for infants as soon as they are a
few weeks old." Research shows that infants identified at birth for
hearing impairment have a greater opportunity to develop within the normal
range of language comprehension, verbal expression and psycho-social
development, than do children identified later.
"We are using the 'gold
standard' in newborn hearing screening," said Nimocks. "The Algo
Newborn Hearing Screener test the baby's entire hearing pathway, from the
ear to the brainstem. It records the baby's brainwave responses to a
series of soft clicks and compares them to a pattern of normal
responses." The testing is non-invasive, and takes from 2 to 15
minutes. Parents have the results prior to discharge from the hospital. |
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