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Last Updated: Oct 23, 2019
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Hearing Impairment in Children and Importance of Early Intervention
Deafness in children is not an uncommon phenomenon. 1-3 infants per 1000 birth is born with congenital sensory disorder. This is much higher when conductive hearing losses both congenital and acquired are taken into account. There is lack of awareness about the gravity of the problem among general population and medical fraternity.
- Children learn to communicate by imitating the sounds they hear. Deafness in the early months of life in a child deprives this valuable sensory input. This results in non development of speech or delayed speech/language development, social problems and academic difficulties.
- The goal of early intervention is to integrate the deaf child into the family and into society, to ensure development of normal/near normal speech and to enable the growth and development of a healthy confident child.
- Universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) can diagnose babies born with deafness. They can be treated with hearing aid or cochlear implant to restore their hearing and subsequently speech language therapy started as soon as possible.
- Early intervention results in normal or near normal speech and the affected child can be integrated into the society.
- The parents, doctors and the society should come together and work hand in hand for achieving this goal.