On May 17, 2006, barely two weeks after the launch of the SoundStart4All website, the New England Journal of Medicine published two articles that add to the current body of evidence for infant hearing screening as an essential public healthcare globally.
The first article by researchers in the UK led by Colin R Kennedy [1] carefully demonstrated the efficacy of early intervention for infants detected and provided with amplification by 9 months of age. It complements earlier reports by other researchers suggesting that favourable outcomes in speech and language development were achievable if detection and intervention occurred in the first year of life, but preferably by 6 months of age.
The second article aptly titled “Newborn Hearing Screening – A Silent Revolution” by Morton & Nance [2] highlights the current possibilities in the aetiological investigation of congenital hearing loss and the value of an aetiological focus as an adjunct to newborn hearing screening programmes.
For the significance of these studies to developing countries please see a previous commentary titled “When is early hearing intervention late? at http://fn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/89/5/F378.
Indeed, a silent global revolution seems underway for newborn hearing screening as more members of the wider medical community become convinced or at least aware of the incontrovertible value of early hearing detection and intervention for ALL.
References
- Kennedy CR, McCann DC, Campbell MJ, Law CM, Mullee M, et al. Language ability after early detection of permanent childhood hearing impairment. N Engl J Med 2006;354:2131-41.
- Morton CC, Nance WE. Newborn hearing screening – a silent revolution. N Engl J Med 2006;354:2151-64.