Hearing Loss

Pediatric ENT of Oklahoma has experienced pediatric audiologists that strive to provide an excellent level of hearing health care that only a pediatric audiologist can. A licensed audiologist with experience in the pediatric population is the professional qualified to perform diagnostic audiological assessments for children and make appropriate recommendations. The audiologists at Pediatric ENT of Oklahoma hold the clinical doctorate degree, AuD, with certification in either/or the American Speech Language and Hearing Association and the American Academy of Audiology, with a license to practice in the state of Oklahoma.

Hearing is a “first order event” and plays a vital role in your child’s speech, language, cognitive, social and emotional development.

It could be that your child has a speech delay, maybe your child did not pass their newborn hearing screening. Your child may have passed the newborn hearing screening but has a risk factor for delayed onset hearing loss. Currently the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) recommends children with risk factors for delayed-onset hearing loss have a diagnostic audiology evaluation at 24-30 months of age regardless of newborn hearing screening results. Click HERE to read the risk factors. You may suspect that your child has hearing loss and/or your child is having a lot of ear infections. These are ALL reasons for you to schedule your child for a diagnostic audiology evaluation with the audiologists.

The audiologists at Pediatric ENT of Oklahoma are certainly committed to establishing consistent pediatric audiology care and recommendations for infants in accordance with the national guidelines of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program to exceed the “1‐3‐6” goals:

1 Month of age – Hearing Screening
3 Months of age– Diagnostic Audiologic Evaluation and Amplification
6 Months of age – Enrolled in Early Intervention

Currently the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) recommends children with risk factors for delayed-onset hearing loss have a diagnostic audiology evaluation at 24-30 months of age regardless of newborn hearing screening results. Click HERE to read the risk factor.

Did You Know?

1/300 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears
90% of children born with hearing loss are born to parents with normal hearing
5 out of 6 children experience ear infections by the time they are 3 years old
Childhood hearing loss of any degree, including mild and unilateral hearing loss (UHL), has a devastating impact on development of speech-language skills and can have harmful effects on social, emotional, cognitive, and academic
development

Ear infections are one of the most common childhood illnesses. Frequent and recurring pediatric ear infections can be cause for concern because of the potential for hearing loss. Children are more susceptible to ear infections because of their immature immune systems, anatomy and exposure to multiple pathogens.

Monitoring of your child’s hearing is critical to ensure positive outcomes for your child to listen, talk, read, write, academic and then employment success.

The audiologists at Pediatric ENT of Oklahoma will provide comprehensive hearing testing to assist in the diagnosis of your child’s hearing loss using best practices in pediatric Audiology.