Infant hearing tests urged
Late diagnosis can mean language loss, doctor says
CALGARY – Dawn Urschel didn’t know her two-year-old daughter Vanessa had hearing problems until her sister, a teacher, said she thought Vanessa had a speech delay.
When Vanessa was three, a hearing test revealed that she did, indeed, have both congenital and sensory hearing loss. Dawn said that, as a new mom, she wouldn’t have even expected that Vanessa could have hearing problems.
“It wouldn’t have even crossed my mind,” she said. “There wasn’t any hearing loss in any of my relatives.”
Alberta is one of four provinces that don’t have a universal newborn hearing screening program.
Dr. Hema Patel, a prominent Montreal pediatrician, said she can’t understand why there isn’t a program.
“It’s a win-win situation. Early intervention is better for the children and dramatically improves their language and cognition outcome, and it saves governments money,” said Patel, who visited the Alberta Children’s hospital Wednesday to speak about the importance of establishing an early hearing detection and intervention program in the province.
“I think most everyday Albertans don’t even know that this is a problem, don’t even know that children aren’t screened, don’t even know that their children are paying a price and that taxpayers are paying for it.”
That price is the cost of special education and a loss of language and literacy in children whose hearing loss is detected late, Patel said. She noted hearing loss in the average Alberta child with a hearing impairment is picked up after they’re a year old.
“The brain has already been modified,” Patel said. “Their whole trajectories in life are changed because of that late diagnosis and it didn’t have to be that way.”
When hearing loss isn’t detected early, which is before the age of one, according to Patel, the brain reconfigures itself to cope. Patel said that without intervention, hearing loss severely affects speech and literacy.
A handful of local activists are petitioning the government to implement a universal newborn hearing screening program.
The Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists also made a submission to the government earlier this year recommending universal access to newborn hearing screening and programs to “facilitate the early identification and intervention of speech-language and hearing disorders in young children.”