All Ohio hospitals had to comply with the new law by July 2004. In the first half of 2005, Ohio's infant screening rate rose to 92 percent, up from 20 percent in 2003, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

Before the law, Ohio hospitals screened only babies who were deemed at high risk for hearing loss because of family history. The old method missed more than 70 percent of infants who had a hearing loss, according to the National Center on Hearing Assessment and Management at Utah State University.

The screening was important for Kristen Lusnia, who is sure her son's hearing loss would have gone undetected for years if he had not been checked within days of his birth.

Studies show that children whose hearing losses were identified within six months of birth had significantly better language scores than children whose losses were detected later.

"The first three years of life are the most important in learning language," said Kelli Halter, project director for the Regional Infant Hearing Program at the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center. "That is when the brain is really wired to learn."

Lusnia's son, Noah, failed the test twice at the hospital. Two weeks later he was diagnosed with a mild to moderate hearing loss in both ears. At age 13 weeks, he was fitted with hearing aids.

Today, Noah is 18 months old and communicates at the same level as other toddlers his age. His mother knows American Sign Language and taught it to Noah, who also uses spoken words to communicate.

Screening takes two forms, both painless and quick. One involves observing the inner ear reacting to sound and the other measures brain activity in response to sound.

The state's 10 Regional Infant Hearing Programs, created to assist parents whose babies have been flagged by hospital screening, saw a 44 percent caseload increase in the first six months of 2005, the Health Department reported to state lawmakers.

The report said Ohio is not consistently meeting the national standard of diagnosis before age six months because of a lack of access to diagnostic audiologic evaluations. A diagnostic test conclusively determines hearing loss and is performed after a child does not pass a screening twice.

The health department blamed the problem on a lack of audiologists experienced in diagnosing and treating infants and toddlers and inadequate or under-equipped sites.

"We're not reaching all of the families," said Connie Block, the health department's supervisor of the regional infant hearing program.

By The Associated Press