Definition
Hearing disorders can occur immediately after birth and also throughout childhood. After birth, a newborn hearing screening serves to rule out pronounced hearing disorders immediately after birth. However, even if the screening is not positive, hearing disorders may develop later in life. Since hearing is essential for the mental, social and linguistic development of the child, it is important to detect and treat any hearing disorders as early as possible.
Causes
Nearly half of the hearing impaired children are affected by a disorder that was already present at birth or occurs in the first 6 months after birth. The causes of these types of hearing disorders are often not identifiable. Hereditary factors often play a role.
Certain infectious diseases of the mother during pregnancy or medication taken by the mother during pregnancy can also be the cause. Of course, complications during birth can also lead to hearing disorders, such as lack of oxygen or birth trauma. Hearing disorders that occur later can be caused by infectious diseases such as rubella or measles. Meningitis can also be a trigger for hearing disorders. Traumas, for example injuries to the skull during falls, can also be the cause.
Accompanying symptomatology
Symptoms that can be a sign of hearing impairment for parents are lack of fear of loud noises, lack of distraction from playing by sounds or speech, no adequate reaction to speech, no reaction to one’s name, poor contact, inattention and aggressiveness, high volume control on radio and television toys, slow speech development, frequent touching of the ears as it can happen with increased pressure in the ear and poor performance at school. If one or more of these symptoms occur, the pediatrician should be consulted.
Diagnosis
The pediatrician or ear, nose and throat specialist will first take an anamnesis with questions about possible causes, complaints of the child and complications, infections and medication during pregnancy. This is followed by a physical examination focusing on the ear and the nasopharyngeal cavity. There are also audiological tests, i.e. hearing tests.
For small children, tests are used for which no active cooperation is required, for older children also tests that require their cooperation. Among the objective hearing tests (child does not have to cooperate) are impedance audiometry, as well as the determination of otoacoustic emissions and auditory evoked potentials. The procedures of subjective audiometry (child must actively cooperate) include reaction audiometry, the tone threshold audiogram and central auditory diagnostics.
