Persistence detects child's hearing loss

By AINSLEY THOMSON

Carole Henderson began to worry about how her daughter Georgia-May was developing when she turned 2.

At that age, her elder son, Jonathan, talked fluently, but Georgia-May could barely say two words.

The Waikato mother repeatedly asked her doctor if her daughter's lack of speech and withdrawn personality was connected to her frequent ear infections.

She was assured it was not.

Mrs Henderson persisted and a hearing test revealed Georgia-May was 70 per cent deaf in both ears.

Waikato Hospital has responded to this and other cases, and in February will start screening newborns for hearing loss - the first programme of its size and type in the country.

Georgia-May is one of 138 children born in New Zealand each year with moderate or greater hearing loss. Most do not have the problem identified until they are nearly 3, severely affecting their development.

This week - Deaf Awareness Week - the message is that New Zealand children are suffering as their hearing problems go undetected.

This leads to serious speech and social development problems.

The National Foundation for the Deaf says NZ lags far behind international standards which advocate that hearing loss should be identified before babies are 3 months old.

A charge audiologist at Waikato Hospital, Michelle Pokorny, says babies whose hearing loss is identified before they are 6 months old can develop normal speech and language skills, even if profoundly deaf.

"After this age, children show significant speech and language delay which will affect their educational prospects, socio-emotional development and future employment prospects, even if their hearing loss is only mild."

Mrs Henderson wishes the hospital's initiative had been available four years ago when Georgia-May was born. Since her hearing aids were fitted two years ago, Georgia-May's life has been transformed.

Mrs Henderson says it has been hard work but her daughter now has normal speech for her age and will start school next year.

The foundation wants a programme such as Waikato Hospital's introduced nationally.

The Health Ministry says it is looking at that possibility and will assess results from Waikato's programme and another in Christchurch.