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Universal Newborn Hearing Screening
One of the wonderful hearing loss trends in the past few years is Universal Newborn Hearing Screening. We have increased the fraction of newborns screened from single digits just a few years ago to over 95% today!
May 2004 – Looks like we’ve made good progress on infant hearing screening. But we’re still a long ways from testing all infants
December 2005 – Improving Follow-Up After Screening Newborns
January 2006 – Utah Families Express Frustration Over Followup After Hearing Screening
February 2006 – New technology promises better hearing loss diagnosis.
April 2006 –State-by-State Report on UNHS
May 2006 – No referral for many kids who fail hearing tests
May 2006 – Screening Changes Could Help Detect Deaf Newborns
May 2006 – Early Hearing Loss Detection Improves Language Skills
June 2006 – ASHA Announces New Early Intervention Campaign
May 2007 – Children With Hearing Loss Often Don’t Receive Needed Care
May 2007 – Some Children Born with "Temporary Deafness"
May 2007 – Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Process
June 2007 – Too many babies don’t get proper tests for hearing
July 2007 – Infant Screening Gains Media Spotlight
September 2007 – Update on Newborn Hearing Screening
November 2007 – Molecular Screening for Children With Hearing Loss: Why Do It?
December 2007 – 50 State Summary of Newborn Hearing Screening Laws
December 2007 – California to require newborn hearing screening
January 2008 – California Law Requires Newborn Hearing Screening
February 2008 – Spectacular Effects of Universal Hearing Screening
March 2008 – Results of Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss
September 2008 – New tool to assess speech development in infants, toddlers with hearing impairments
November 2008 – Delay in NHS hearing tests mean deaf babies are not being spotted
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Improving Follow-Up After Screening Newborns
December 2005
An article in the "ASHA Leader" applauds our society for implementing programs that require hearing screening for the vast majority of infants. But we haven’t done such a good job of following up on those who fail the screenings. Maureen Thompson writes, "Approximately 95% of infants are being screened for hearing loss today, compared with only 3% just 15 years ago. But this improvement in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) screening has yet to produce comparable positive outcomes for follow-up services. In some states, one-half of those infants who fail their hearing screening are lost to follow-up before diagnosis and intervention." Full story
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State-by-State Report on UNHS
April 2006
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening State by State – How are we doing on screening EVERY newborn for hearing loss? On the whole, I think pretty well, with a national average of 92.8%. Some states are doing very well, with New York, Illinois. Mississippi and Rhode Island at or over 99%. Others aren’t doing so well, among them Ohio (76%) and California (78%). To see how your state is doing, please point your browser to www.infanthearing.org/status/unhsstate.html
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Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Process
May 2007
Early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) is the process of identifying infants at birth, or shortly thereafter, who have a hearing loss. It is the provision of appropriate intervention services to maximize the infant’s linguistic and communicative competence. This process may mean different things to professionals who make up the EHDI team. The “team” refers to the infant’s family and to those professionals who work with the infant to identify the hearing loss and provide medical, educational, and developmental intervention as needed. Early intervention has a different implication to each member of the team, and may have a different meaning depending on what that team member’s responsibility is. Full Story
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Too many babies don’t get proper tests for hearing
June 2007
A third of newborns who fail their hearing screening test don’t get a follow-up evaluation, leaving them susceptible to delays in language development that they might never overcome, a report says. The proportion of newborns screened for hearing loss has climbed steadily in recent years, hitting 95 percent by mid-2006, says author Karl White, director of the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management at Utah State University. . . . About 2 percent, or 76,000 babies, don’t pass and are referred for a diagnostic assessment of their hearing. Additional testing is needed to determine whether they are among the one to three babies per 1,000 who actually have hearing loss, the CDC says. Until recently, only about half of babies who failed the screening were reported as having the additional testing, but that proportion rose to two-thirds in the past year. Full Story
Infant Screening Gains Media Spotlight
July 2007
"I have always found it difficult to believe people are not interested in [helping] children with hearing loss," said former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. "But at least the cost savings in reducing children’s need for special education should get attention." In 1988, when Koop called for a significant increase in early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI), fewer than 3% of newborns received early screening. The current screening rate is 95% but should be higher, said Koop and other panelists at a May 9 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., held to mark Better Hearing and Speech Month. The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing sponsored the event, calling attention to persistent gaps in EHDI. State program coordinators report that 34% of babies who failed newborn hearing screenings did not receive a confirmation of a diagnosis after initial screening. And nearly a quarter (23%) of babies who did receive a confirmed diagnosis still failed to be referred to early intervention services. Full Story
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Update on Newborn Hearing Screening
September 2007
Despite its frequency, however, newborn hearing loss has proved to be an elusive diagnosis, primarily because few were looking for it. In 1993, the National Conference of State Legislatures found that fewer than 5% of all infants were screened for hearing loss before hospital discharge. Today, thanks to awareness campaigns and government leadership, that figure has risen to 65%, with the more established programs screening 95% of their newborns before discharge. Early screening identifies only that there is a problem. Methods suggested by ASHA guidelines include measurement of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and auditory brainstem response (ABR). The specific diagnosis and treatment are determined through follow-up. The problem may be temporary, such as birthing fluid in the ear, or permanent, indicating a need for treatment ranging from signing to hearing aids or cochlear implants. Whatever treatment is prescribed should be determined by the time the child has reached 6 months of age. Children who receive early intervention often function at the level of their peers by the time they enter school, producing better outcomes. Full Story
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Molecular Screening for Children With Hearing Loss: Why Do It?
November 2007
Recent estimates suggest that screening for a relatively small number of genetic and environmental causes for hearing loss in newborns will identify the etiology for as many as 70% of those who either have congenital hearing loss or are at risk for late-onset pre-lingual hearing loss. Screening tests for the relevant causes of deafness are already commercially available. All newborn infants would require screening to detect pre-symptomatic infants at risk for delayed-onset pre-linguistic hearing loss, but the tests can also be used in infants with identified hearing losses. As is true of most genetic tests, a positive test result would provide a reliable indication of the cause of hearing loss in an infant who is deaf, but a negative test result would not exclude other mutations or other genetic or environmental causes. Full Story
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50 State Summary of Newborn Hearing Screening Laws
Updated September 2007
Full Story
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California to require newborn hearing screening
December 2007
As of Jan. 1, even more children like Gregory will get the intensive services designed to give them the best start in life. That day, a new law takes effect requiring that all California hospitals with delivery services test newborns’ ability to hear. Currently, California is one of the 19 states without universal hearing screening programs. Although about three-quarters of the state’s birthing hospitals began offering a state-mandated program after its launch in 2000, the rest were exempted by state rules linked to reimbursement. That means that each year, more than one-quarter, or about 130,000, of the state’s newborns have been receiving either inadequate hearing screening or none at all, said Dr. Hallie Morrow, medical consultant with the state’s Newborn Hearing Screening program. Full Story
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California Law Requires Newborn Hearing Screening
January 2008
When 1-year-old Gregory Moeller heard sound for the first time in November, he furrowed his blond eyebrows in puzzlement. Then he made a series of babbling sounds. "He’s hearing something," said Annie Vranesic, a pediatric audiologist at the Let Them Hear Foundation in East Palo Alto. Two weeks earlier, Gregory had received cochlear implants, sophisticated devices enabling the deaf boy to hear the same sounds as everyone else, albeit in a different tone. During this visit, Vranesic turned on one of the surgically implanted devices. For the first time, Gregory could clearly hear his parents’ voices. He also turned his head toward the wooden block Vranesic loudly smacked on her desk to test his hearing, and soon after, he uttered a burst of babble. As of this year, more children like Gregory will get the intensive services designed to give them the best start in life. On Jan. 1, a law took effect requiring that all California hospitals with delivery services test newborns’ ability to hear. Full Story
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Spectacular Effects of Universal Hearing Screening
February 2008
Not only has Universal Hearing Screening identified thousands of kids with hearing loss, it has led to the identification and treatment of some new conditions, and also to the identification of infants with unilateral hearing loss, many of whom lose the hearing in their other ear within a few years. Dr. Marion Downs hosted an online seminar during the Ultimate Colorado Mid-Winter Meeting in Vail, we were also privileged to have participation from not only Dr. Marion Downs, and Drs. Linda Hood, Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, and Sandra Gabbard presented on their recent efforts. The full transcript is here.
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Results of Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss
Effects on the Family in the First 2 Years of Life
March 2008
Results
Mothers of infants in the false-positive group did not report increased stress or impact. Mothers of infants with HL reported greater financial impact, total impact, and caretaker burden compared with mothers of infants in the control group. In multivariate analysis of the total cohort, the presence of HL was associated with increased total impact on the family; a neonatal intensive care unit stay was associated with increased stress and total impact on the family; and older maternal age and greater family resources were associated with decreased stress and total impact on the family.
Conclusions
Although a false-positive result or a pass of the screening for HL was not associated with increased stress or impact, identification of HL was independently associated with greater total impact on the family when the child was 18 to 24 months of age. Full Story
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Delay in NHS hearing tests mean deaf babies are not being spotted
November 2008
HUNDREDS of parents do not realise their babies are deaf because they are not given hearing tests, it was revealed today. Many children are not diagnosed until they are toddlers, delaying development and putting emotional health at risk. Babies in London get the worst hearing care in the country, with half of all newborns missing out on tests which should be given to every child. Parents whose children are diagnosed with hearing problems also face unacceptable delays and problems getting help, an NHS report found. All babies should be given a hearing test before they are four weeks old as part of a screening programme introduced in 2006. If problems are detected they should then get an appointment with an audiologist and follow up tests. Full Story