Hearing Screening questions &
answers rated A+
Justification for Newborn Hearing Screening - correct answer ✔✔ 1. Condition must be
IMPORTANT (cause significant morbidity/mortality, suffering, developmental impacts)
2. Screening procedure must be safe and PRACTICAL, valid, reliable, acceptable
3. There must be TREATMENT for the condition that is effective, available and accessible
4. EARLY TREATMENT MUST BE MORE EFFECTIVE than later treatment
5. Cost of screen OUTWEIGHED by BENEFIT to individual/society
Critical Period Theory - correct answer ✔✔ *Certain time period when children can learn and
produce S & L
*Babies are neurogenically primed to learn language and that language is shaped by
enviromental experience
*During critical period, language input is critical for neural/brain development
*Beyond the initial period, language development becomes more difficult if not impossible
*By pre-puberty the inability to perceive and use language is irreversible
Consequences of Congential Hearing Loss - correct answer ✔✔ *Auditory stimulation is critical
for normal auditory development and for spoken language development
*Deaf babies forn to Deaf parents have access to visual language from birth
*Hearing babies born to hearing parents have acces to auditory language from birth
***90% OF CHILDREN WITH DEAFNESS/HEARING LOSS ARE BORN TO HEARING PARENTS***
Language - correct answer ✔✔ The primary basis for learning, social development, relatedness
with others, self-concept and identity.
, Late Identification of Hearing Loss - correct answer ✔✔ *Late identification = late
(re)habilitation
*Untreated loss: delay in language and social development
*Difficulty w/ language based academics: reading & writing
*As children grow older and progress through school system, gaps between hearing and
hearing-impaired widen
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening "UNHS" - correct answer ✔✔ *Before UNHS: Average age
of dx: 12-24 months for severe-profound hearing loss, 3+ years for mild-moderate, high
frequency or unilateral loss
*History:
-1950s-60s: Behavioral screening methods (changes in infants behavior based on sounds -
subjective, inconsistent)
- 1980s-90s: Commercial ABR and OAE equipment available
- 1994: JCIH (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing) supports OAE and ABR as screening methods,
recommends screening for all babies on high risk register (usually ones in the NICU)
High Risk Register - correct answer ✔✔ *Family history of loss
*TORCH
*Cranifacial anomalies
*Syndrome associated with hearing loss
*In NICU for >5 days
*Meningitis
*In early 1990s, many hospitals voluntarily conducted screens in NICU, studies indicated that
high risk register would miss 50% of babies with significant loss
*Mid 1990s, pilot programs evaluated UNHS of all infants. Showed screen was easy, cost-
effective, valid and sensitivity (correctly identify those who HAVE the condition), specificity
answers rated A+
Justification for Newborn Hearing Screening - correct answer ✔✔ 1. Condition must be
IMPORTANT (cause significant morbidity/mortality, suffering, developmental impacts)
2. Screening procedure must be safe and PRACTICAL, valid, reliable, acceptable
3. There must be TREATMENT for the condition that is effective, available and accessible
4. EARLY TREATMENT MUST BE MORE EFFECTIVE than later treatment
5. Cost of screen OUTWEIGHED by BENEFIT to individual/society
Critical Period Theory - correct answer ✔✔ *Certain time period when children can learn and
produce S & L
*Babies are neurogenically primed to learn language and that language is shaped by
enviromental experience
*During critical period, language input is critical for neural/brain development
*Beyond the initial period, language development becomes more difficult if not impossible
*By pre-puberty the inability to perceive and use language is irreversible
Consequences of Congential Hearing Loss - correct answer ✔✔ *Auditory stimulation is critical
for normal auditory development and for spoken language development
*Deaf babies forn to Deaf parents have access to visual language from birth
*Hearing babies born to hearing parents have acces to auditory language from birth
***90% OF CHILDREN WITH DEAFNESS/HEARING LOSS ARE BORN TO HEARING PARENTS***
Language - correct answer ✔✔ The primary basis for learning, social development, relatedness
with others, self-concept and identity.
, Late Identification of Hearing Loss - correct answer ✔✔ *Late identification = late
(re)habilitation
*Untreated loss: delay in language and social development
*Difficulty w/ language based academics: reading & writing
*As children grow older and progress through school system, gaps between hearing and
hearing-impaired widen
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening "UNHS" - correct answer ✔✔ *Before UNHS: Average age
of dx: 12-24 months for severe-profound hearing loss, 3+ years for mild-moderate, high
frequency or unilateral loss
*History:
-1950s-60s: Behavioral screening methods (changes in infants behavior based on sounds -
subjective, inconsistent)
- 1980s-90s: Commercial ABR and OAE equipment available
- 1994: JCIH (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing) supports OAE and ABR as screening methods,
recommends screening for all babies on high risk register (usually ones in the NICU)
High Risk Register - correct answer ✔✔ *Family history of loss
*TORCH
*Cranifacial anomalies
*Syndrome associated with hearing loss
*In NICU for >5 days
*Meningitis
*In early 1990s, many hospitals voluntarily conducted screens in NICU, studies indicated that
high risk register would miss 50% of babies with significant loss
*Mid 1990s, pilot programs evaluated UNHS of all infants. Showed screen was easy, cost-
effective, valid and sensitivity (correctly identify those who HAVE the condition), specificity
