Screen Newborns for Hearing Impairment

*As taken from the Star's archive, letter published on 22nd April 2009. Credit to Saravanan :)

WE have a three-and-a-half year old son whom we recently discovered is hearing impaired.

The news came as a shock to us and his teachers as the boy did not show any indications of hearing impairment. He is able to understand us quite perfectly, functions well in school and the only missing aspect in his development is his speech.

A hearing test was requested by his speech therapist as part of the procedure to rule out hearing problems that may hinder his speech development. As a result, we discovered that our son has bilateral mixed (moderate to severe) hearing loss.

Infant hearing screening is conducted widely in most developed countries. Otoacoustic emission (OAE), an easy, quick and inexpensive method with accuracy of 90% to 99%, is commonly used.

Unfortunately, OAE screening is not widely available in this country. Only selected private hospitals include this in the newborn screening package.

There is also a lack of awareness and education on infant hearing loss. Perhaps hearing loss among babies is low and unlike other paediatric issues, it is not something fatal.

The advantages of early detection of hearing loss and early intervention for hearing-impaired children are well established. Early intervention can promote a child’s normal language development and takes full advantage of the developing sensory system.

Children with hearing loss below six months of age who are given the necessary interventions are found to do better in general development, expressive and receptive language skills and personal-social areas than children identified after six months of age. They are also on par in their language and cognitive skills with normal hearing children.

In Malaysia, we found that infant hearing screenings are conducted in some teaching hospitals for research purposes only and mostly on high-risk babies. The mean age of hearing loss detection in Malaysia is 48 months. This is beyond the 0-3 years period, which is the critical period in maximising the brain plasticity for a child’s language development.

We therefore urge the Govern­ment and medical authorities to seriously consider offering infant hearing screening widely and educate parents accordingly about infant hearing loss. While the percentage of hearing loss among low-risk babies is low, let us not leave the odd child out. A child stands to benefit considerably from early detection and intervention.

WMD,

Penang.