An Easy Way to Test Your Baby's Hearing Capability

Sean, who was born at 8lbs and 6oz, obliviously had his hearing assessed after living for only thirty-six hours. He was wheeled up to what looked every bit like a personal computer that had some wires running from it. The audiologist took hold of one of the wires which had a small plastic probe at it's tip, and she gingerly put the probe in the baby's right ear. She then went to the computer's keyboard and typed some things in. The picture on the screen was quickly replaced with an intricate graphic display.

I visited this research institute that focused on hearing to see this procedure, which can allow children with hearing issues to have a head start on the problems that they will encounter in life. 24,000 newborn babies each year are born with some degree of hearing loss, as well as 4000 each year born completely deaf. The test that was being performed was called an otoacoustic emissions test, and it is used to determine in the first few hours of birth whether or not the baby has any amount of hearing loss to contend with through his/her life.

Before the OAE test, potential hearing impairment in children often went undetected until the age of 2 or 3. The outcome may prove to be devastating. For these children, early speech and language development become delayed. The children are delayed in speaking and they have lost out on the information about their surroundings that comes through hearing. Crucial intellectual and emotional development are learned during the first two years of a child's life. In certain instances, an erroneous diagnosis of mental inadequacy is made for a child who has hearing loss.

OAE testing begin in 1990, but before this, it could be expensive and complicated to test each newborn baby. The test employed in those days was called the auditory brain stem response, and it did provide an accurate reading of a child's hearing ability. The process consisted of attaching electrodes to the baby in order to measure the auditory nerve's activity. The test must be administered by a professional audiologist or physician due to its complexity, and is costly at about $90 per half hour exam. It's naive to think it's an efficient way to test all the newborns around the nation, there aren't enough people qualified to give the test.

On the other hand, OAE is relatively affordable and never calls for a full-time practicing audiologist's assistance. It's quicker, at only five minutes, and measures how well the small hairs on the cochlea vibrate when sound is present. When the probe was placed in the infant's ear, the tiny hairs inside began to vibrate because of it. The audiologist tenderly moved the child onto his other side and repeated this procedure a second time, grinning as she examined the tests results. Sean was fortunate to be born with excellent hearing.

A second test will be performed one week after if an infant fails the first hearing test. The reason is that during birth some fluid can be pushed into the ear canal, which can make the baby's tests come out poorly. An auditory brain stem response assessment will be done if a newborn exhibits any signs of a hearing condition on the second test, as this will help to narrow down the issue. Then a corrective plan of action can be determined.

Newborns who experience minimal hearing loss have the option open to them to get fitted for a hearing aid as early as three months old. This approach is often all it takes to produce normal hearing. By a year-and-a-half, the child can receive a cochlear implant, which is a surgical procedure which can help to correct hearing deficiencies for their entire life.

When it comes to severe hearing conditions, a parent learns early on in life to take more time with teaching their child about their planet by employing visual prompts. If the children who experience such problems receive this extra attention, they will normally develop regularly. When faced with raising a deaf child parents have a variety of styles to consider, each with there own positive points, among these are lip-reading, cued speech, hearing aids, and American Sign Language.

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