Hearing Screening around the World

Abstract

Newborn hearing screening programs for congenital disorders and chronic diseases are expanding worldwide, and children are identified at the earliest possible stage. However, the practice is limited or absent in much of the developing world, such as Africa. Recent epidemiological studies show significant increase of hearing impairments in school-age children (around 20 in 100). Hearing disorders disturb the child's perception of sound, as well as the development of speech which in consequence negatively affects the child relations in society. The early detection of hearing impairments in children enables the effective implementation of medical and rehabilitation procedures or preventive treatment. According to the guidelines of the European Scientific Consensus on Hearing, the detection and treatment of hearing disorders in early school-age children are of the highest importance. That idea was one of the priorities during Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (the second half of 2011). The Institute team, in collaboration with numerous national centers, has laid the groundwork for screening programs and developed methods, procedures, and devices for carrying them out. In addition, the Institute was the coordinator and producer of many programs. Based on this, two screening models have been created-newborn and school-age children.

Results of hearing screening of school-age children in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

“…A unilateral hearing loss can affect many areas of a child's development, can cause difficulties in sound source location, and problems with perceiving speech in background noise. In addition, there can be problems associated with loss of binaural summation and sound localization, causing delays in speech-language development and impairments to school performance (Skarżyński and Ludwikowski, 2018). On this basis, identification of hearing loss, whether unilateral or bilateral, calls for effective management so as to minimize these adverse effects (Grandpierre et al, 2018).…”

“…Around 466 million people worldwide have disabling hearing disorders, and 34 million of these are children (World Health Organization, 2019). It is well known that late detection, and hence delayed therapy and rehabilitation of hearing disorders, has negative consequences in terms of language and speech development, emotional and cognitive development, and learning at all levels (Skarżyński and Ludwikowski, 2018). For these reasons, universal newborn hearing screening programs have been introduced in many countries to allow early identification of hearing loss (Fortnum et al, 2001;Skarżyński et al, 2014).…”

Hearing Screening among First-Grade Children in Rural Areas and Small Towns in Małopolskie Voivodeship, Poland

“…These conditions make the child more tired in the classroom because of the increased effort needed to listen. The child may have difficulty with speech understanding in certain situations, such as understanding faint or distant speech, and can seem inattentive or distracted in the classroom [ 38 ].…”

Reliability of parental assessment of auditory skills in young children: a cross-sectional study in Italian language

“…3 Although several attempts have been made to introduce secondary screening to primary care health centres, 4 5 most countries still lack an effective and affordable protocol for identification of children at risk of permanent or prolonged HI occurring after birth. 6 To address this issue, the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing has identified a series of risk indicators that should prompt continued monitoring of hearing status, even if the NHS results were normal, emphasising that 'family/caregiver concern regarding Strengths and limitations of this study ► Parents' recognition of age-appropriate auditory, language and communication abilities was evaluated as a possible tool for a more accurate recognition of hearing impairments that progress or have later onset. ► The proposed targeted questionnaire follows in detail the developmental trajectories of the skills in question.…”

“… 3 Although several attempts have been made to introduce secondary screening to primary care health centres, 4 5 most countries still lack an effective and affordable protocol for identification of children at risk of permanent or prolonged HI occurring after birth. 6 To address this issue, the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing has identified a series of risk indicators that should prompt continued monitoring of hearing status, even if the NHS results were normal, emphasising that ‘family/caregiver concern regarding hearing, speech, language, or developmental delay and or developmental regression’ could represent the main alarming risk factor requiring a prompt referral to audiological services. 2 7 Yet the ways in which to highlight a real concern are not well defined, and parents/caregivers may not easily understand what the specific suspect elements of HI are.…”