We often discuss the benefits of hearing screening for children who are identified with a hearing loss. But what about for the children who pass and whose hearing is normal?  Can hearing screening contribute to the school readiness of every child?   

 

An accurate and comprehensive description of all aspects of health and development is key to individualized education that promotes growth and development in the whole child.  Thus, a passing hearing screening can contribute to:

• More rapid and accurate assessment of any potential developmental delays. Speech and language delays, behavioral concerns (including concerns about autism), as well as cognitive and social developmental delays, can all be more accurately diagnosed when information on the auditory system is available.  When hearing loss has been ruled out, diagnostic evaluations in other areas become far more reliable.  
• An accurate and comprehensive description of a child's abilities, strengths and challenges that informs individualized learning and transition plans. Auditory input is at the heart of typical language development. It is essential to know a child's hearing status in order to create individualized learning conditions that appropriately encourage auditory learning, that help the child to explore the world of sound, how to listen, how to recognize that different sounds make up a word, and how to reproduce those sounds and words.

Passing results obtained from hearing screening represent an important opportunity to engage with parents about expanding upon a child's listening abilities, particularly around learning the sounds that make up words and how words make up sentences. 

 

As you get to know a child, you learn about many different aspects of who they are, their strengths and abilities, their preferences and challenges.  A child's relationship to the world of sound is a key aspect of this developmental portrait.   

In this way, hearing screening information becomes a an essential foundation for language learning and school readiness for all children - those who pass as well as those who do not.