Identification of Hearing Loss After Age 18 Months Is Not Early Enough

TLDR

The study examined the developmental trajectories of 40 deaf and hard‑of‑hearing infants. Infants were divided into groups based on whether hearing loss was identified before 6 months or after 18 months, and developmental quotients from the Minnesota Child Development Inventory were compared at a mean testing age of 40 months. Those identified before 6 months performed significantly better on expressive language and comprehension‑conceptual subtests, underscoring the benefit of early detection and universal hearing screening.

Abstract

The general development of 40 deaf and hard of hearing infants was analyzed. The infants were placed into one of two groups according to age at which hearing loss was identified: (a) before age 6 months and (b) after age 18 months. The mean age at testing was 40 months. Developmental quotients (DQs) were used to compare results regardless of the infants' age at time of testing. Infants were evaluated on the basis of their DQ scores on the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI; Ireton & Thwing, 1972). MCDI subtests include general development, gross motor, fine-motor, expressive language, comprehension-conceptual, situation-comprehension, self-help, and personal-social. Infants whose hearing loss was identified before age 6 months scored significantly higher than those whose hearing loss was identified after age 18 months in the expressive language and comprehension-conceptual subtests. The performance of the earlier-identified group supports the earliest identification of hearing loss and encourages implementation of universal hearing screening.