When we bring our bundle of joy home for the first time, our lives starts revolving around them. From day one we get a goal in life to give them a quality of life but if we come to know that our child has hearing loss, which could have been treated if diagnosed early our lives shattered. Baby Priya* (name changed) was diagnosed as having complete hearing loss at the age of 10 months, mother was crying inconsolably, father didn’t have words to express his grieve.
But after accepting the problem they were guided for possible treatment options and at the age of 3 years Priya can hear and trying to be at par with her peer group which continuous auditory verbal therapy.

A hearing loss occurring early in life can have a major impact on speech and language development. Even a mild hearing loss during the first 3 years of life can adversely affect a child’s development in areas that rely on auditory input (Alberti et al., 1983). The longer a hearing loss goes undetected, the greater is the likelihood that handicapping delays will occur. At least partially, such developmental delays can be offset by intensive education and training. However, the older the age of the child at the onset of therapy, the more difficult will be the task. To minimize the adverse effects of hearing impairment in young children, it is widely accepted that the loss should be identified as early as possible.

With recent advances in technology now a days infants are screened for any hearing loss just after 24 hours of birth, Although most babies can hear normally, 1 to 3 of every 1,000 babies are born with some degree of hearing loss. Without newborn hearing screening, it is difficult to detect hearing loss in the first months and years of your baby’s life. Newborn hearing screening can detect possible hearing loss in the first days of a baby’s life. If a possible hearing loss is found, further tests will be done to confirm the results. When hearing loss is confirmed, treatment and early intervention should start as soon as possible.

According to Joint committee on Infant Hearing (2007)

1.  All infants should have access to hearing screening using a physiologic measure before 1 month of age.
2. All infants who do not pass the initial hearing screen and the subsequent rescreening should have appropriate audiologic and medical evaluations to confirm the presence of hearing loss before 3 months of age.
3. All infants with confirmed permanent hearing loss should receive intervention services before 6 months of age. A simplified, single point of entry into an intervention system appropriate to children with hearing loss is optimal.
4. The child and family should have immediate access to high-quality technology, including hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive devices when appropriate.
5. All infants and children should be monitored for hearing loss by qualified and experienced audiologists. Continued assessment of communication development should be provided by appropriate providers to all children with or without risk indicators for hearing loss by qualified speech language pathologist.

Let your child hear the world, Its better to be safe than sorry.

Happy hearing!!!