"Lee will direct Tasmania's current screening program for at-risk babies, and she will also be working with the department to prepare a case for the introduction of universal screening for all at-risk babies," Mr Llewellyn said.

"I'd like to make that a priority for funding in the next State Budget."

Mrs Banasik, of New Town, has 15-month-old identical twins, Callum and Liam.

Liam has mild to severe hearing loss, depending on the frequency of the sound, which was diagnosed when he was a newborn because the twins were 11 weeks premature.

But Mrs Banasik said screening for all babies was ideal because early diagnosis was so important.

"Even now you can't see any real difference between them, so had it not been picked up straight away he might have been two or three years old before any problem was discovered," Mrs Banasik said.

"The differences are very subtle at this age. Because we knew about it we know what steps to take. He was fitted with a hearing aid at six months. That's a challenge because he pulls it out.

"We're careful to talk to him, as well as things like making sure it's a quiet room when we read to him. He misses parts of words. We're hoping his speech and language will develop normally."

Mrs Banasik said the initial diagnosis was hard to take, but they had put it into perspective.

"In some ways we were quite devastated. But then we thought what could have gone wrong, which was losing one of them."

Mr Llewellyn said evidence showed screening improved early detection and allowed early intervention with important benefits for speech, language and cognitive development.

The DVD and video What Do We Do Now? was produced by the Deafness Forum of Australia.

By Michelle Paine