CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA—Every dollar invested in early intervention services for children with hearing loss reaps $2 in benefits to the community. So states First Voice, a coalition of non-profit centers in
Australia that help children with hearing loss, in a report issued on August 22.
Until recently, children born with severe hearing loss often faced long odds against being well educated and successfully employed. But, thanks to advances in the early diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss, today’s generation of children born deaf can start school with similar speech and hearing abilities as their non-deaf peers, according to new research.
An analysis prepared by Econtext Pty Ltd. finds that children who get help soon after birth will complete more schooling and be more likely to get a job, enjoy higher incomes, have a better quality of life, and avoid injuries than those whose hearing loss is not addressed until later.
”Even children who at birth can’t hear a jumbo jet flying overhead can have age-appropriate listening and language skills by the time they start school if we can get all the ducks in a row,” said Dimity Dornan, chairwoman of First Voice.
The ”ducks” include diagnosis of the condition in the days after birth. This is now routine in Australia, thanks to a national newborn screening program introduced in 2002. Also crucial are intensive early intervention programs combined with hearing aids and, if needed, cochlear implants by 6 months of age.
According to First Voice’s report, most graduates from early intervention programs run by coalition members can attend mainstream schools and finish year 12.
Before the national intervention program began, children in Australia did not receive treatment for hearing loss until much later than is the case now. For example, cochlear implants typically were not provided to children until age 5. As a result, they tended to lag far behind their normal-hearing contemporaries in school.
