Children

Each year, around 840 children are born with a permanent hearing impairment.

Until recently, around 50% of these children were not identified until 18 months old, with 25% still left undiagnosed at 3 years old. Late diagnosis can have a devastating effect on language acquisition, communication development, confidence and social skills, which can last a lifetime.

However, if deaf children are identified at an early stage, and appropriate support is given, research shows there is no reason why they cannot develop at the same rate as their hearing peers.

The importance of early diagnosis has been accepted for many years, but it is only now that the technology is available to objectively determine a child's hearing status shortly after birth.

For over thirty years children's hearing was screened in the UK using the Infant Distraction Test (IDT) performed by Health Visitors on babies of about 8 months of age. The IDT, which relies on children reacting appropriately to certain types of sounds, lacks the objectivity of technological testing methods and, as a result, fails to identify around half of all hearing-impaired children.

The IDT is gradually being phased out in favour of newer and more accurate screening performed on newborn babies. The new screening is part of Newborn Hearing Screening Programmes, which are being rolled out gradually across the UK. All areas of England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now participating and we hope that this will soon also be the case in Scotland, meaning that all babies will be tested for deafness and hearing problems soon after birth.