April 11, 2012

        My focus of the topic deafness in this blog post is early diagnosis. It is ideal to detect deafness as early as possible, due to the vast about of changes that occur in early development. Parents have to make crucial decisions on what options will be used to either "treat" or not "treat". The reason I put the word "treat" in quotations is due to the controversies that surround deafness. Some people view deafness at a problem in which it needs to be fixed or treated. I will use this throughout my blogs. I am a firm believer in deaf culture and I tend to be against cochlear implants (will be discussed in a later post).Today, I focused on the initial warning signs before diagnosis.
         The Centers for the Disease Control and Provention states that most identications of a child are often questioned in screening and in tests. Most parents, when children are every young (babies and toddlers), are unaware that their child is deaf because of the lack of vocabulary and understandings of words, along with the lack of communication. The CDC states that in 2009 that 98% of children covering 50 states were screened for hearing.
        Hearing screening are series of sounds in which you determine if you can hear the sounds. The hearing screening is conducted by an audiologists. There are multiple types of tests that can be used and helps to deternine hearing loss. One test is called the Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) Test, and is responsible for showing the brains reaction to sound. The next test is Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) and this test focuses on the interaction between the inner ear and sound. The last test is Behavioral Audiometry Evaluation, which all parts of the ear are involved in all parts of the ear.

http://www.cdc.gov/NCBDDD/hearingloss/screening.html