He could suddenly hear fire engines on the street and his parents reading bedtime stories, without putting his better ear right next to their mouths.

Children such as Tom have missed out on early diagnosis because New Zealand does not screen babies for deafness at birth.

However, Health Minister Pete Hodgson has announced the Government will follow through on its pre-election promise to introduce a universal newborn screening programme.

Without screening, the average age of diagnosis in New Zealand had jumped to 45 months – a delay experts say leads to ongoing problems with brain development, communication and learning.

Christchurch Deaf Association team manager Anne Deegan said it was important hearing loss was recognised early.

"Those first few years are all about language acquisition. If a child is deaf, you need to start putting visual things in place instead," she said.

Knowing early meant a parent could choose to learn sign language, have their child fitted with hearing aids, or find out about the suitability of cochlear implants, Deegan said.

Tom's parents, Jane and Mike Hooker, of Riccarton, said their son had many ways of compensating for his hearing loss before being diagnosed, including lip reading, which he still used.

However, the diagnosis led to huge improvements in his speech, behaviour and ability to play with other children, Jane Hooker said. "He'd been hitting out, hair-pulling, eye-gouging. It was pure frustration on his part. There were amazing differences immediately."

The Hookers said knowing Tom was deaf from birth would have helped them adapt play and communication methods and meant they could have introduced speech language therapy sooner. He could have had hearing aids fitted from about three months of age.

By Joanna Davis
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3487467a7144,00.html