New born or Infant Hearing Screening

Your baby needs to have a hearing screening. Before you bring your baby (newborn or infant) home from the hospital or nursing home,

According to WHO out of every 1000 children born in India, there may be 5–6 such children who cannot hear properly?

Because there are no visual indicators or clue and in our country there are also lack of awareness so mostly hearing-impaired children who are not screened (checked up) at birth are not identified until age between 0 and 3 years, which is well beyond the critical period for healthy speech and language development.

There are two screening methods that are mostly used:

Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR):
 This screen measures how the hearing nerve and brain respond to sound. An audiologist places small earphones in the child's ears and soft electrodes (small sensor stickers) near the ears and on the forehead. Clicking sounds and tones go through the earphones, and electrodes measure how the hearing nerves and brain respond to the sounds.

Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE):
This screen measures sound waves produced in the inner ear. An audiologist placed tiny probe just inside the baby's ear canal. It measures the response (echo) when clicks or tones are played into the baby's ears.