hearing

Approximately 33 babies are born every day with a significant hearing loss in the United States. Nearly 50% of newborns with hearing loss are not diagnosed until at least the second year of life. Hearing loss among newborns is 20 times more prevalent than phenlyketonuria (PKU), a condition for which all newborns are screened for. The average age that children with hearing loss are initially diagnosed ranges from 12 to 25 months. Studies have shown that when hearing loss is detected later, an important time frame for developing speech and language skills has passed. As a result, speech and language development is delayed and academic and social skills may be adversely affected. Research has confirmed that treatment has the best results when infant hearing loss is identified and intervention is begins before the child reaches six months of age. Less than 20% of the children born in the U.S. are born in hospitals that offer universal newborn hearing screening programs.

The National Institute of Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Audiology, the Joint committee on Infant Hearing, and the Healthy People 2000 Report recommend that children with congenital hearing loss be identified before six months of age. A unilateral hearing loss that remains undetected will have negative consequences. Even children with a hearing loss in one ear are ten times as likely to be held back by a grade as compared to children with normal hearing in both ears. Infants identified with hearing loss may be fit with hearing amplification as young as four weeks of age. Appropriate and comprehensive early intervention helps these children develop with better language, cognitive, and social skills.

Most children with hearing loss can hear some speech, however, the speech tends to lack clarity since the hearing loss occurs in the higher frequencies that contain most of the consonant and vowel sounds necessary for understanding speech. However, since the child is able to respond to the lower frequencies, he or she will usually be identified later on. As a result of late identification, speech and language skills will have significant delays. Early identification is necessary before sixth months of age in order to catch that specific time frame in which optimal speech and language development occurs. Formal audiological evaluations are needed to rule out less severe but equally disabling degrees of hearing loss.

Why am I blogging about this, you may ask? Well, Isaac is taking us down this path right now. He's had three hearing tests since his birth and has failed all of them. So in about two weeks, we are heading to Naples, Italy for further testing. They'll be doing an auditory brainstem response test. We just recieved our flight itinerary yesterday and are now planning out our "trip". Since we'll be in Italy, at the Naval Hospital, we were able to extend our time a few days so we can do some sightseeing. I wish we were going under better circumstances though.

We moved to our new house this week and don't have internet at home at this point so my time is very limited at this cyber cafe. In fact, I've got to go soon so I'll have to stop here. Just wanted to pop onto my blog and let my blogger friends and family know what we are doing this month. Prayers for my baby's hearing, testing and future are welcomed and encouraged. We are trusting the Lord in this and resting in the fact that He won't give us more than we can handle. In fact, we are grateful to have this early testing and diagnosis at the beginning of his life. I'll for sure post about what the next testing reveals.

2/14 UPDATE: Friday, one hour before close of business, the beginning of a three day holiday weekend, and four days before we take off, we recieved the news that our Italy doctor appointments have been canceled and our travel plans have been pulled! The pediatric audiologist went into labor herself, (almost 4 weeks early) so now she's on maternity leave for the next 10 weeks or so! After much frustration and a few tears, we've decided to buy two more plane tickets for Travis and me to join the kids tickets (that we bought as nonrefundable tickets) and take a big family vacation to Italy for10 days. Travis already has the days off arranged and it's a vacation spot we want to tour while we're in Europe so we're just going to make the best of the time and the money already spent on the trip. So, no medical diagnosis for Isaac this month! It will probably take 3-4 weeks for new medical plans to work out for his hearing tests. Who knows where they will send us now. ARGH!