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April 25, 2007
Early Detection of Hearing Loss and Timely Intervention Help Ensure Healthy Infant Development
Imagine that you're the proud parent of a newborn baby. He or she is beautiful, of course. But as physicians run the gamut of tests, they determine your newborn is deaf or has a serious hearing loss. If you're like most parents, you're numb, overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed. In 90 percent of cases, deaf children are born to hearing parents, making the deafness even more difficult for parents to understand.
Every day in America, according to the July 2003 edition of The Hearing Review, approximately one in 1,000 newborns - or 33 babies - is born profoundly deaf and another two or three of every 1,000 babies are born with a partial hearing loss, making hearing loss the number-one disability in America
There is help available: CHOICES for Parents, a coalition of parents and professionals from throughout Illinois that promotes the health and development of children with newly identified hearing loss, helps parents navigate the often-difficult news that their child is deaf. CHOICES provide parents with immediate access to support, information and resources to help them make the best decisions they can for their children with hearing loss.
"When parents learn their child has a hearing loss, it often is a shock," says Jill Sahakian, director, Chicago Hearing Society, a division of Anixter Center ( http://www.anixter.org/ ). The lead agency and fiscal agent for CHOICES, Anixter Center is a nonprofit that provides a variety of services to people with disabilities.
There has been an increased emphasis on hearing screening for infants in recent years, explains Karen Aguilar, coordinator, CHOICES for Parents. In 2002, the Illinois legislature mandated that all 135-plus birthing hospitals in the state screen the hearing of newborns before babies go home from the hospital. "A child's most important learning takes place during the first years of life. An undiagnosed deaf child aged three will only know about 25 words, compared to 700 words for a hearing child of the same age," says Aguilar. "With ninety percent of deaf babies being born to hearing parents, the hearing loss can create communication barriers that may delay a child's emotional, cognitive and social development. Getting an early start helps to minimize this negative impact."
CHOICES will sponsor the third annual Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Day in Illinois on April 27 in Chicago. For more information, contact: Karen Aguilar at CHOICES for Parents, choicesforparents@yahoo.com or (312) 523-6400 or (866) 733-8729.
Press Release
Posted by 4HL on April 25, 2007 5:23 AM
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