What is the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme?
It's a programme that automatically offers all parents in England the opportunity to have their baby's hearing tested within the first 26 days of life. As hearing is crucial to the development of speech and language skills, it's vital to diagnose a hearing impairment as early as possible .
Research shows that a deaf child can develop language at the same rate as any other child if deafness is identified by the age of six months and a good early intervention and support programme is provided. There are equivalent programmes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Around one child in 900 is born with a hearing loss in one or both ears, increasing to about one in 100 for babies who have spent more than 48 hours in intensive care. Most babies born with a hearing loss have no family history of hearing problems so it's important to screen all babies .
This first screening test is carried out on the maternity ward, at home, or in a clinical setting. A trained hearing screener or your health visitor will place a small, soft-tipped earpiece in the outer part of your baby's ear. Clicking sounds are made in the ear and if everything is working fine, there should be a response in the cochlea, a spiral-shaped tube in the inner ear. The screening equipment will pick up the response.
The test is pain-free, takes just a few minutes, and will usually be done while your baby is asleep or settled. You should get the results right away. If the test shows a clear response from both of your baby's ears, it's unlikely that they have a hearing loss.
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