TowerScope Volume 8, Issue Nr. 3, March 1971

              Test detects infant hearing deficiencies
By the time a baby leaves Saint Joseph Hospital
for the outside world, he's been through quite a lot
already. His heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle
tone, relax irritability and color have been scored
by a nurse on a point system one minute after birth
and again at five minutes after birth.
Even before birth, he may have had a blood sample
taken, his pulse and EKG recorded by means of one
our fetal monitors.
Now, in our hospital and a number of others through-
out the country, babies are routinely tested for hear-
ing problems.
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This program was first started at the University of
Colorado Medical Center and it has served as a
prototype for a number of other similar programs.
By means of a battery-powered electronic instru-
ment called an audiometer, each infant at Saint
Joseph is tested for hearing responses to high-
pitched sounds. Since the general pattern of con-
genital hearing loss appears to be a common ability
to hear the low pitches better, the high pitched
noise stimulus is used.
Mrs. Patricia Pike, speech therapist and audiologist
at Saint Joseph, has instructed eight Auxilians who
help her in performing the test on infants born here.
Before beginning the session, the testers carefully
observe the infant's behavior and activity. If the
baby is sleeping quietly, it is much easier to see
a  small response to the test stimulus -- the baby
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may wake up, or turn his hear, or blink his eyes or
even jump a little. If he is already crying or moving
around, it may be much harder to distinguish a
response or the sudden noise may startle the baby
and he will stop crying.
When the sound is presented, the observers (usually_
two or three on a team) learn to watch the baby
closely and record what they see in the instant
after the presentation of the sound. They do not
discuss how they have rated the infant but individ-
ually score the response on a five-point scale:
1.no observable response; 2. a questionable re-
sponse; 3. a weak but definite response; 4. a strong
response; 5. a large startle response.
If there is any question about a hearing deficiency,
the attending physician is notified, and he in turn,
notifies the parents. It is requested that the child
returns for further tests at our hospital. Parents are
also sent letters after their children have been
tested and this includes information about early
language development -- which begins with re-
sponding to sound.
Studies show that only one in a thousand infants
does show a severe hearing deficiency when tested
shortly after birth and for this reason many pro-
fessionals have scorned the cost of hiring trained
personnel to carry out the test on every infant �
that is where volunteer Auxilians can be of such
help to our program.
The main reason for this hearing test is for the
future of the child. If treatment is received at an
early age, the child can receive maximum treatment.
External or middle ear defects can be corrected
medically or surgically. Children with nerve type
damage in the inner ear cannot be treated this way
but may benefit from hearing aids and auditory
training and speech therapy.
The earlier these deficiencies are found, the better
the chance of helping the child develop normal or
usable speech. Most children usually start learning
a few simple words before they are a year old and
their vocabulary increases considerably before they
are two. A child with a permanent hearing defect
needs to be made aware that speech exists and that
people's lips are moving for a reason. For this
reason, one can see why it is so vital that defects
of this nature be discovered at the earliest possible
time.
There have been cases in the past where a child
has not been recognized as having a hearing de-
ficiency until he enters school and in cases such ^^
as this he may never "catch up" with the other^^ ^
students. It is easy to see why this program is such
an important one - it gives the deaf child an equal,
or almost equal, chance in a hearing world.