After trials in various parts of the country, the option of giving newborn babies a hearing test within hours of their birth has now become a national NHS policy. But what is it and how does it work?
How does a newborn get a reliable hearing test?
Whilst an older child or adult can tell a doctor whether or not they can hear various sounds during a conventional hearing test, it is not possible to reliably get the same information from a smaller child. Thus, a newborn test is preferable to waiting until a child is old enough to tell a doctor what they can and can't hear.
The new test involves a small earpiece sending soft clicking sounds into the ear. As they hit the cochlea, they should create an echo and that reaction can be measured electronically. The echo, or lack of it, can tell doctors is further checks will be needed, or if a child is deaf or has some level of deafness.
Is it dangerous to expose a newborn's ears to these sounds?
The sounds don't have to be significantly loud to send an accurate message back to the monitor and the test is often given to a sleeping newborn who is completely untroubled by the experience.
Why is a hearing test needed so early?
The RNID estimate that one or two children in every 1000 born in the UK each year have some degree of deafness that affects their ability to communicate.
If deafness goes undetected until much later, a child's first experiences of the world, his own ability to relate to it, and his relationships with those around him can all be affected. Speech can be delayed, affected or not present at all, and his experience of learning in his earliest years at school can be confusing and frustrating, setting a negative foundation for his future.
Previously, children were tested by using the 'disraction test' between six and 12 months. This involved the health visitor making small sounds from various positions in a room, and gauging the child's response to them. But these tests were often carried out in busy surgeries or clinics where sound wasn't reliably heard, or during a longer physical check-up where a small child had already grown restless and distracted with something else.
It is believed that, of the 840 or so children each year who were found to be deaf, 400 had not been picked up using the distraction method.
For more go to the RNID website, or visit the NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme website.
