HEARING LOSS TREATMENT

In the United States, 98% of newborns are screened for hearing loss before they leave the hospital, and diagnosis of hearing loss can occur promptly afterwards. Infants diagnosed with hearing loss can then be fitted with digital hearing aids within the first weeks of life, and those who are candidates for cochlear implants are routinely implanted at 12 months of age or earlier. Despite an ever-increasing proportion of children with hearing loss receiving early intervention there is a good deal of variation in language and literacy outcomes with significant numbers of children failing to obtain adequate skills in these domains. Limitations on literacy development result in negative socio-emotional, economic and educational consequences.  We believe that there is an acute need to leverage innovative neurocognitive approaches with new tools from developmental neuroscience and speech science to develop partnerships to the goal of improving outcomes for these children.  

A child identified with hearing loss at birth, fitted with advanced hearing technology within the first weeks of life and whose family receives access to early intervention services, can thus acquire listening and spoken language abilities and achieve outstanding literacy skills. While timely and appropriate treatment with a hearing device and/or specialized education shows extraordinary results to close the gap between hearing deficient children and children with normal hearing abilities, lack of detection and/or treatment of hearing loss causes life-long disabilities. Untreated hearing impairment often leads to depression, loneliness and social isolation, particularly among youth. Hearing impaired people also tend to be over represented in low responsibility and low pay jobs and suffer from greater unemployment than the general population. The average income of hearing-impaired people is 25% below that of people with normal hearing.