Have You Heard? Together We’re Making a Difference!
Posted on 3/20/2007
St. Alexius Medical Center, part of the North Dakota Early Hearing Detection & Intervention (ND EHDI) program and community partners are working together to increase infant hearing screening rates, follow-up and intervention. St. Alexius Medical Center, one ND birthing hospital, along with ND audiologists, Right Track and Parent Infant Program providers are key partners in developing ND EHDI into a comprehensive program. Together with two federally funded grants, these partners create a comprehensive model that does not stop newborn hearing screening at the hospital level, but continues its efforts through diagnosis and early intervention for infants and children with hearing loss and their families.
More than 30 babies are born every day in the U.S. with a hearing loss, making it the most common birth defect. Each day newborns are discharged from the hospital without receiving an initial hearing screening. Since the ND EHDI program began, newborn hearing screening rates prior to hospital discharge have risen from 39% to over 95%. Screening newborn infants for hearing loss identifies most children with congenital hearing loss prior to the onset of language development, allowing their parents to access services much earlier than otherwise. St. Alexius Medical Center remains an important part of ensuring that newborns in North Dakota are screened for hearing loss before they are discharged from the hospital.
In the absence of screening, the majority of children with congenital hearing loss do not receive a diagnosis until two to three years of age, by which point language development is usually seriously delayed. Certain children have later-onset or progressive hearing loss that cannot be detected during the newborn period. Clinicians and parents should be alert to hearing, speech, language or development delay and should have children tested for hearing function if they are concerned about delays regardless of previous hearing screenings.
If your newborn needs additional testing or follow-up care for hearing loss, please contact your primary care provider for more details. To benefit most from Early Hearing Detection and Intervention, remember 1-3-6! Screen by one month, diagnose by three months and enroll in early intervention by six months of age.