Why aid a young infant?

[Guest guest]

--- Kay wrote:

Some of us whose

child(ren) were diagnosed at a later age, as mine was, actually envy those

who find out about their child's hearing loss through newborn testing.

--- end of quote ---

My older son was diagnosed with his severe/profound loss at 3 and got his aids

at 3-1/2 (that's years, not months!). I SO wish he'd been diagnosed earlier -

one of my only regrets... New Hampshire now screens all its newborns, as does

Louisiana (where Tom was born).

Barbara

******************************

Barbara Mellert

Manager, Social Science Computing

Kiewit Computing Services

Dartmouth College

Hanover NH 03755

Tel: 603/646-2877

URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ssc

[Guest guest]

--- Kay wrote:

Some of us whose

child(ren) were diagnosed at a later age, as mine was, actually envy those

who find out about their child's hearing loss through newborn testing.

--- end of quote ---

My older son was diagnosed with his severe/profound loss at 3 and got his aids

at 3-1/2 (that's years, not months!). I SO wish he'd been diagnosed earlier -

one of my only regrets... New Hampshire now screens all its newborns, as does

Louisiana (where Tom was born).

Barbara

******************************

Barbara Mellert

Manager, Social Science Computing

Kiewit Computing Services

Dartmouth College

Hanover NH 03755

Tel: 603/646-2877

URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ssc

[Guest guest]

--- Kay wrote:

Some of us whose

child(ren) were diagnosed at a later age, as mine was, actually envy those

who find out about their child's hearing loss through newborn testing.

--- end of quote ---

My older son was diagnosed with his severe/profound loss at 3 and got his aids

at 3-1/2 (that's years, not months!). I SO wish he'd been diagnosed earlier -

one of my only regrets... New Hampshire now screens all its newborns, as does

Louisiana (where Tom was born).

Barbara

******************************

Barbara Mellert

Manager, Social Science Computing

Kiewit Computing Services

Dartmouth College

Hanover NH 03755

Tel: 603/646-2877

URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ssc

[Guest guest]

Thank you Jill for saying that this is a Flame Free Zone. I like that

phrase! Mind if I adopt it?

This info is offered to help those who don't understand the 'Why?' and want

to.

Children's brains have an 'optimal' time for learning different things -

like when a child learns to control their muscles enough to sit up, walk,

potty train, etc. It's a time when the task is most easily learned.

Typically, children learn how to talk and say their first words at about one

year of age. From the time of birth (or even before) till the child talks,

the child's brain is learning about sound; that it is a way to communicate

ideas, tone of voices, what makes what sounds, etc. If a child is aided at

about the time they should be learning to talk, the child is then playing

'catch-up' because he has to learn all of the stuff he missed, but his brain

is also busy trying to learn other things it's set to learn. If the child is

aided as an infant, there is less catch-up to do. Some of us whose

child(ren) were diagnosed at a later age, as mine was, actually envy those

who find out about their child's hearing loss through newborn testing.

Aiding an infant, however is much more difficult to do for a number of

reasons and so there are some audiologists who don't even try to do so in a

timely manner - but that's a whole different matter.

Of course, the same goes for other forms of commnication - the sooner

started, the better. The child isn't just learning about sound at this time,

he's also learning about communication - and communication is the ultimate

goal, no matter which mode the parent chooses.

-Kay

[Guest guest]

--- You wrote:

We found out our son has a hearing loss thanks to the Newborn Hearing Test.

It was confirmed at 1 month old and at 10 weeks he had his aids. So his hearing

age is only 10 weeks shy of his real age. This we are Thankful for as we know he

this gap will close in with time. He is now 8 1/2 months old and doing well.

--- end of quote ---

I have a similar story - although neither of my boys were fortunate enough to

have been diagnosed at birth. My older son was 3-1/2 years when he was aided.

At 12-1/2, he's doing well it's taken a huge amount of work - he was held a

grade in school (which was the best thing we could have done), had extensive

speech therapy, etc. My younger son (who now is 10) was diagnosed when he was

15 months old and was aided right away. When he was tested when he started

kindergarten, his " hearing age " was 5 years, 6 months; Sam chronologically was 5

years, 9 months at the time. I should add that Sam is profoundly deaf. Sam

tested out of special ed at the end of first grade and is now on a 504 plan. I

was concerned at first that he wasn't in special ed any longer - but so far his

being on a 504 plan has worked well for him.

He's currently in 4th grade, fully mainstreamed with a couple of pullouts weekly

for speech (language, really) and that's it. Tom, my older son, is still in

special education. They are *very* different boys but I can't help but think

had Tom been aided sooner, it would have been so much better.

So yes, I wish more than anything my boys had been diagnosed at birth,

particularly Tom. On the other hand, they weren't and there's nothing that I

can do about it and Tom's done incredibly well given his late diagnosis.

Barbara