The Hearing-Impaired Infant: Patterns of Identification and Habilitation Revisited

This study is a follow-up of an 1980–1982 study that examined the occurrence of risk factors and the patterns of identification and habilitation in a group of hearingimpaired infants from an urban setting. Current findings covering the period 1983–1988, indicate that only one out of three hearing-impaired infants can be expected to be identified through audiological screening programs in Neonatal Intense Care Units (NICUs) and although the age at diagnosis for NICU graduates is significantly earlier than for Well Baby Nursery (WBN) graduates, age at enrollment in a parent-infant program for both NICU and WBN infants is around 20 months. Over the 8 year period covered by our two studies, the age hearing-impaired infants are enrolled in habilitation has remained a year or more later than the 6 month ideal recommended in 1982 by the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing.