Hearing Loss in Children

What Is Hearing Loss?

Some children are identified with hearing loss during a newborn hearing screening conducted shortly after birth. Other cases of childhood hearing loss may have a later onset and/or be progressive in nature. In addition, some mild hearing losses, hearing losses confined to specific frequency ranges, and auditory neuropathy may not be identified through newborn hearing screening due to limitations of the test equipment or testing methodology used. For this reason, audiologic monitoring over time is important for all children, especially for those who may be at risk for hearing loss.
Exposure to language is critical to speech and language development, communication, literacy, learning, and psychosocial well-being. Unidentified hearing loss can impact early spoken language access. Early identification of hearing loss and implementation of intervention services by Speech Therapy has been shown to have positive outcomes on overall development in deaf and hard-of-hearing children.