Children can only develop spoken language through consistent exposure to the acoustic cues that comprise speech and language. Until recently, hearing levels from the clinical audiogram were the primary measure used to define typical hearing and the presence or degree of a child's hearing loss. While the clinical audiogram remains an important…

Worldwide, 15 million babies are "born too soon" every year (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). Remarkably, prematurity survival rates now exceed 93% across all countries. More than 360,000 preterm babies survived in the United States in 2020; 10% of all births (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). While this is an…

This paper examines the controversy over use of impedance screening in public schools to identify students with hearing problems, including otitis media, a common ear condition in infants and young children. It cites research that questions the value of pure tone screening as a single test and raises critics' objections to the use of impedance,…

The paper analyses issues in the hearing assessment of multihandicapped deaf-blind children. The experiences of the authors as consultants to centers for deaf-blind children are briefly noted. Advantages and disadvantages are considered for two basic approaches to hearing assessment: the electrophysiologic in which electricity from neural…

Described is a system for evaluating a child's learning pattern. It is explained that the evaluation is based on a social history, visual screening (including acuity, functional skills, pursuit skills and binocularity skills), auditory evaluation, motor assessment, and academic testing. (CL)

The paper reports on a study in which 64 students (6-9 years old) identified as learning disabled in the area of auditory discrimination were trained to discriminate musical pitches in order to assess effects on speech discrimination. A detailed review of the literature is presented regarding the use of music in remediation, the definition of…

Sophisticated neurological research shows that early problems with auditory perception can result in long-range negative effects for the linguistic processes in general, and such long-range effects must be assumed to be correlated with induced degenerative changes in the auditory system and perhaps in the brain's linguistic sector. This research…

This paper provides guidelines for the audiologic assessment of infants and young children, highlighting recent technologic advances in auditory electrophysiology, acoustic immitance measure procedures, and behavioral audiometric techniques. First, audiologic assessment guidelines developed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association are…

The paper describes the use of an operant procedure to assess the speech perception of 11 young (7 to 35 months old) hearing impaired children and 11 normally hearing subjects. Subjects were presented with a repeating background stimulus and conditioned to turn their head on presentation of a contrasting syllable. The head-turning responses were…

This paper addresses three areas related to amplification for infants and toddlers with hearing impairments: (1) identification issues as they relate to early amplification; (2) selection of amplification; and (3) assessment of aided function. Identification issues discussed include the goal of early identification of hearing loss and the impact…

This paper describes functions of the components of hearing aids and provides a detailed procedure to detect hearing aid dysfunctions. The most common type of hearing aids for school children are the behind the ear type. Various hearing aid components change sound into an electrical signal, which is amplified and adjusted by a volume control. The…

A non-aversive modification of Bekesy Audiometric Procedures (BAP) used in assessing hearing ability has been found to produce interpretable audiograms from children whose responses to the unmodified BAP were erratic and uninterpretable. In an experiment with six 8-year-old children, three subjects were assigned to a condition in which a light cue…

A study was conducted to determine which factors on the Pupil Rating Scale (Revised) developed by H. Myklebust (1965) were identified by classroom teachers as being deficient in referring students for central auditory testing. The Pupil Rating Scale is a behavioral checklist for classroom teachers to use to rate students in five broad categories…

The report summarizes findings and recommendations of a Virginia Department of Education Task Force concerning the establishment of comprehensive hearing screening programs in Virginia's public schools. Special emphasis was on findings of Project HEAR (Hearing Education and Resources) which found that mass hearing screenings could be conducted in…

This paper addresses incidence of hearing loss in school-age children, components of hearing conservation programs, and hearing loss education. Incidence figures for the following hearing loss categories are detailed: unilateral hearing loss, fluctuating hearing loss, minimal sensorineural hearing loss, and mild to profound hearing loss.…