Hearing Assessment in Infants, Children, and Adolescents: Recommendations Beyond Neonatal Screening
Charles Bower1, Brian Kip Reilly2, Julia Richerson3
1Department of Otolaryngology, Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Insights
Early identification and intervention for deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children are crucial. Ongoing hearing surveillance beyond infancy helps prevent language and academic deficits.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Audiology
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) face significant risks for language delays, academic underachievement, and socio-emotional challenges.
- Newborn hearing screening and early intervention are vital to mitigate these adverse outcomes.
- Continued monitoring of hearing is essential due to potential changes in hearing thresholds after infancy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide guidance on hearing assessment and care for children beyond the newborn period.
- To review risk factors associated with changes in hearing levels.
- To support pediatric primary care providers in managing D/HH children.
Main Methods:
- Review of current recommendations for pediatric hearing surveillance.
- Identification of risk factors for hearing threshold changes.
- Guidance on subjective and objective hearing screening methods.
Main Results:
- Early identification and intervention significantly reduce negative consequences for D/HH children.
- Regular hearing surveillance, including subjective and objective assessments, is recommended post-infancy.
- Pediatric primary care settings play a key role in scheduled hearing screenings.
Conclusions:
- Timely identification and intervention are critical for D/HH children's development.
- Ongoing hearing surveillance is necessary to detect and address changes in hearing.
- This report equips primary care providers with tools for effective D/HH child management.
Abstract:
Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) are at high risk for permanent deficits in language acquisition and downstream effects such as poor academic performance, personal-social maladjustments, and emotional difficulties. Identification of children born D/HH through newborn hearing screening and subsequent timely early intervention can prevent or reduce many of these adverse consequences. Ongoing surveillance for changes in hearing thresholds after infancy is also important and should be accomplished by subjective assessment for signs of atypical hearing and with objective screening tests. Scheduled hearing screening may take place in the primary care setting, or via referral to an audiologist according to the Bright Futures/American Academy of Pediatrics "Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care" (also known as the periodicity schedule). This report covers hearing assessment beyond the newborn period, reviews risk factors for hearing level change, and provides guidance for providers of pediatric primary care on the assessment and care of children who are D/HH.
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