Update Author:

Allen D. Buz Harlor, Jr, MD; Charles Bower, MD; AAP Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine; and AAP Section on Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery

Congenital or acquired hearing loss in infants and children has been linked with lifelong deficits in speech and language acquisition, poor academic performance, personal-social maladjustments, and emotional difficulties. Identification of hearing loss through neonatal hearing screening, regular surveillance of developmental milestones, auditory skills, parental concerns, and middle-ear status and objective hearing screening of all infants and children at critical developmental stages can prevent or reduce many of these adverse consequences.

The AAP clinical report “Hearing Assessment in Infants and Children: Recommendations Beyond Neonatal Screening,” released in October 2009, promotes a proactive, consistent, and explicit process for the early identification of children with hearing loss in the medical home. An algorithm of the recommended approach has been developed to assist in the detection and documentation of, and intervention for, hearing loss.

The entire clinical report can be accessed at http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;124/4/1252. This clinical report is a revision of the AAP clinical report “Hearing Assessment in Infants and Children: Recommendations Beyond Neonatal Screening” posted in February 2003.