speakmiracles.org

Hear for Life

Hear for Life seeks to raise awareness among parents/caregivers and medical providers of the potential for hearing loss in very young children residing in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Here are the facts

Deafness is the number one birth defect in the U.S., with nearly 6 in 1000 infants having some level of permanent hearing impairment. In our region, over 110 children are born every year with a permanent hearing loss, more than 30 of whom will have a profound loss. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania now requires that the hearing of all newborns be screened within the first 30 days of life. Babies who "fail" the newborn hearing screening or who do not reach developmental hearing milestones should be evaluated promptly by an audiologist and diagnosed before they are 3 months old. Ongoing monitoring is important because approximately 30 percent of children with hearing loss are diagnosed later, even after passing their newborn screening.

Many pediatricians and family practitioners do not understand the importance of early intervention services for children with permanent hearing loss. Moreover, recent advances in cochlear implantation and microsurgery to enable a child to maximize his or her residual hearing have surpassed the knowledge of what is now possible. Too often a parent is told: "Let's wait and see what happens." It is only when the child's language fails to develop that steps are taken to help the toddler. Precious time to assist that child optimize their eventual oral communication skills is lost. The child will never fully recoup from this delay.

As a result, parents are frequently not provided with resources to monitor developmental milestones. Even in situtations where parents may suspect hearing impairment in their child, they may not be given a full range of choices on follow-up diagnosis and treatment. Historically, the majority of children with hearing loss communicated through sign language, alone or in combination with the spoken word. Now, advances in technologies are providing a greater range of communication options -- even for the youngest children.

Hear for Life

• Encourage parents, in cases where their baby has failed the newborn hearing screen, to promptly follow up with diagnostic follow-up services.
• Provide parents with information so they may make an informed decision with respect to enrolling their children in early intervention services.
• Develop and distribute comprehensive resource kits for the use of parents as well as pediatricians and other providers in the medical community.
• Engage parents and pediatricians on current and emerging technologies available to assist deaf and hearing impaired children.
• Disabuse stereotypes by publicizing the advances in teaching paradigms that allow deaf and hard of hearing children to thrive and lead barrier-free lives in the community.