THE POSITION STATEMENT
The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) endorses early detection of and intervention for infants with hearing loss. The goal of early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) is to maximize linguistic competence and literacy development for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Without appropriate opportunities to learn language, these children will fall behind their hearing peers in communication, cognition, reading, and social-emotional development. Such delays may result in lower educational and employment levels in adulthood.1 To maximize the outcome for infants who are deaf or hard of hearing, the hearing of all infants should be screened at no later than 1 month of age. Those who do not pass screening should have a comprehensive audiological evaluation at no later than 3 months of age. Infants with confirmed hearing loss should receive appropriate intervention at no later than 6 months of age from health care and education professionals with expertise in hearing loss and deafness in infants and young children. Regardless of previous hearing-screening outcomes, all infants with or without risk factors should receive ongoing surveillance of communicative development beginning at 2 months of age during well-child visits in the medical home.2 EHDI systems should guarantee seamless transitions for infants and their families through this process.
2007 JCIH POSITION STATEMENT UPDATES
The following are highlights of updates made since the 2000 JCIH statement3:
Definition of targeted hearing loss
The definition has been expanded from congenital permanent bilateral, unilateral sensory, or permanent conductive hearing loss to include neural hearing loss (eg, “auditory neuropathy/dyssynchrony”) in infants admitted to the NICU.
Hearing-screening and -rescreening protocols
Separate protocols are recommended for NICU and well-infant nurseries. NICU infants admitted for more than 5 days are to have auditory brainstem response (ABR) included as part of their screening so that neural hearing loss will not be …