Why It Is Essential That You Test Your Baby's Hearing Early

Less than two days after being born, Sean was already undergoing a test to measure his ability to hear, without ever having to be roused from sleep. The woman audiologist, took Sean in his cradle, over to a computer, which looked just like my desktop at home, except there were a series of wires attached to this one. The lady audiologist took one of the tiny wires and gingerly placed it into the newborn boys right ear and typed something into the computer. The computer monitor revealed a complex display of multi-colored graphics.

There is a procedure that provides several hearing impaired children to prepare for challenges they may face and give them an advantage in coping which I viewed when visiting this ear research institute. In the U.S., there are 4000 children born deaf annually, and another 24,000 infants born with some type of hearing impairment. The otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test that I was watching, is a tool that allows hearing impairment to be diagnosed soon after birth, so the infant's pediatricians and family will have every opportunity to help a resolution for the hearing problem to be found.

It isn't uncommon for kids to come to two or three years of age before anyone finally notices a hearing condition is present. There can be serious problems for the child because of this. There will be a delay in the speech and language skills of the child. Children with hearing issues lack the input into their environment that the hearing sense can give them, and they will not form full words until very late in their development. The first couple of years of life are critical for the emotional and intellectual development of the child. There are many cases where a child who has hearing loss was thought to be mentally deficient instead.

OAE testing begin in 1990, but before this, it could be expensive and complicated to test each newborn baby. One audiologist has said that the auditory brain stem response evaluations are very exact in their results. The auditory nerve is observed by electrodes attached to the infant and measure the activity of the nerve as it travels to the child's brain. These tests cost a minimum of $90 and take 30 minutes to complete, also they require the presence of a professional physician or audiologist to do the testing. 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.

The great news is that the OAE testing procedure does not have to be performed by a hearing specialist and is very inexpensive to run. The OAE test exposes the small hair cells in the cochlea to sound, and measures the vibration of these cells, and in this five minute test, any hearing loss will be detected. A transmitter delivers sound into the ear of the infant, and a highly sensitive microphone listens for the sounds that these hairs make as they respond to this sound. Once the test was done on the first ear, it was on to the other side where it was performed again. The newborn baby had almost perfect hearing.

In the event that the initial test returns a failing result, there will be a subsequent test administered the following week. So soon after being born an infant can sometimes have fluids in the ear that can cause the results to show up poorly. If the test that is performed a week after the first failed test comes up with poor results, then an auditory brain stem response test is given to the baby to further pinpoint the issue. The audiologists will meet with the baby's pediatrician as well as parents to council them on anything that can be done.

If the hearing loss is minor, hearing aids can be provided at three months of age. In some cases, that will solve the problem and the baby will be able to hear normally. A cochlear implant is a procedure that can provide a permanent solution to a child's hearing issue, this may be done by a surgeon when a child is 18 months old.

When a child is thought to have a more severe case of hearing loss, the child's parents are told to spend more time than normal with the infant, to use better visual cues to help the baby learn about the world. This type of rigorous attention has been shown to help the babies develop at a normal intellectual rate in most cases. 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.

Article Source: http://www.newsarticlessite.com

To get a closer look on hearing aids prices visit this site. You can get the best hearing centres information by visiting this website.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated