Question
How common is hearing loss in young children?
Answer
Hearing loss is not uncommon in preschool children. More than 90% of preschool children will have hearing loss at some time or another, and some will have recurring hearing problems. The prevalence of hearing loss at birth is approximately 3-5 infants out of every 1,000 which equals .3-.5%. While that might not sound like a lot, when it comes to health problems, that's very prevalent. For example, take a medium-sized state in the US where 100,000 children are born every year. In many states, the number of births is much higher (e.g., in California, there are approximately 500,000 children born each year). In a state with 100,000 births, perhaps 5,000 children are born with hearing loss that could very well impact communication or their ability to learn in general. The percentage of children with hearing loss increases through the preschool years. Among three-year-olds, one out of every 100 children has significant hearing loss. Significant hearing loss is one that may affect their ability to communicate via listening and speaking. At age nine, two out of 100 children have significant hearing loss. These statistics are referring to permanent hearing loss, which is usually in both ears. There are other types of hearing loss that is reviewed in this course. Almost every child has one or more middle ear infections during the preschool years, and teachers may be the first to notice that. The symptoms and characteristics of middle ear infections are also discussed in this course. Preschool children learn almost entirely through their hearing (or auditory modality). They also learn by seeing but most learning occurs through the auditory modality.
Children may also have auditory processing disorder, which may affect their ability to listen and understand in certain conditions such as background noise or when people speak quickly. Auditory processing disorder often referred to as APD or CAPD (central auditory processing disorder), is caused by deficits in the neural processing of auditory information in the central auditory nervous system. It's important to point out that both hearing loss and APD can interfere with speech and language development, reading and school performance, as well as social and psychological functioning.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from a course entitled, Types and Causes of Hearing Loss in Preschool Children: What the Early Childhood Educator Should Know About Hearing, Part 1, by James W. Hall III, PhD.
