Rockville, MD-May 5, 2006 The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has announced a new five-year national effort to diagnose and provide early intervention services for 90% of children with hearing loss by the time they are six months old.
Hearing loss continues to be the most common birth defect in America. Nearly a decade ago, slightly more than 20% of U.S. hospitals screened newborns for the condition. In 2000, ASHA set a five-year goal to provide hearing loss screenings for at least 90% of newborns by the time they were one month old. That goal was achieved in 2005.
"The impact of delayed detection of hearing loss in newborns and intervention can last a lifetime," ASHA President Alex Johnson, PhD, says. "When hearing loss is found early, intervention and treatment can produce dramatic improvements in a child's speech and language development, and emerging literacy skills."
Some objectives of the five-year initiative include promoting:
- model eligibility criteria for the IDEA Part C program
- expanded access to pediatric assistive technology
- model coverage criteria for both public and private insurers.
HR 5250 calls for:
- improved follow-up for newborns who fail the hearing screening
- access to appropriate and timely diagnosis and early interventions services
- family support programs for children newly identified with hearing loss
- a postdoctoral EHDI fellowship program at the National Institutes of Health.
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 123,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders.
For more information, go to www.asha.org or call 1-800-638-TALK.
Taken from https://www.asha.org/about/news/earlyintervention.htm.
