Department of Audiology Faculty Articles

Title

Dimensions of Care Model and Pediatric Audiology

ResearchID/ORCID ID

0000-0001-6770-4377

ISBN or ISSN

1085-9586

Volume

15

Issue

7

Publication Date / Copyright Date

6-2010

First Page

16

Last Page

19

Publisher

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

DOI Number

10.1044/leader.FTR2.15072010.16

Abstract

With the advent of universal newborn hearing screening programs as a standard of care and continuing technological advances, enhanced early intervention experiences for children who are deaf/hard of hearing and their families may be an attainable goal. The last two decades have brought much progress, but parents still have a range of experiences with newborn hearing screening. As their statements attest, Parent A’s experience was less than desirable and Parent B’s experience was quite positive.

Parent A: “As we were being released from the hospital, the nurse who was discharging us just randomly said, ‘Your daughter hasn’t passed the newborn hearing screening. We gave it to her yesterday and she didn’t pass so we gave it to her today and she isn’t responding.’ She said it as if she was saying something off of her grocery list. It was just like—’Okay when you go home, do this, this, this, this, and by the way your daughter failed her newborn hearing screening.’ When I left the hospital I was shocked. I mean, we had no idea that that was coming. I had the feeling that something was wrong and she had a lot more wrong than just that but the initial feeling was disbelief.”

Parent B: “I found out about my daughter’s hearing loss from her newborn hearing screening. She failed one ear in the hospital when she was born and we were told to go to Children’s Hospital to get more tests run…and so as soon as we could we took her…and that’s when we were told that she had a severe loss in her right ear and a profound hearing loss in her left ear. When we found out, she was automatically fitted for hearing aids and we got those ordered and we got them put in and she started wearing those. Then she received speech-language treatment, and then they did more hearing tests just to kind of note her progress to see if it was getting worse or if it was staying the same. Then, probably the second or third hearing test that they did, her hearing loss had gone from severe in one ear and profound in the other ear to a profound hearing loss in both ears.”

Family difficulties like these challenge us to strive for continuous quality improvement in the implementation of early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) processes.

Disciplines

Communication Sciences and Disorders | Medicine and Health Sciences | Speech and Hearing Science | Speech Pathology and Audiology

Keywords

children, hearing screening programs, newborn, parents

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