QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER if you SUSPECT A HEARING LOSS (babies and infants)

Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening offers all babies a hearing check before or soon after they are discharged home from the maternity unit.Even if a baby showed clear responses at newborn hearing screening, it is still very important for their parents to observe the baby’s responses to sound and his/her speech and language development.  Hearing difficulties can occur at any stage of development.
If you are concerned about a child’s hearing, look at the Developmental Checklist of Hearing Behaviours and if there are still concerns, ask the following questions:

Does he/she respond to your voice when he/she can’t see you? Y N

Does he/she respond to his/her name? Y N

Does he/she react to environmental sounds such as the doorbell or the phone? Y N

Does he/she turn if he/she hears a favourite toy? Y N

On hearing the signature tune of a favourite programme, does he/she stop what
he/she is doing to look at the TV or run into the room if elsewhere? Y N

Does he/she startle if you approach from out of vision e.g. from behind or in the dark? Y N

Does he/she startle if you drop something? Y N

Has there been a reduction in your child’s babbling? Y N

Does he/she want to speak to people on the phone? Y N

Does your child struggle with feeding? Y N

Is he/she prone to colds/earache/sore throats? Y N

Does he/she breathe through his/her mouth rather than nose? Y N

Does he/she snore? Y N

The highlighted answers indicate a possible problem with hearing. If you have circled several of these, we would advise that, as a first step, the child is taken to their GP for an oral and aural examination and possible onward referral for a hearing test and/or ENT examination. 

There can be other reasons for the child having these difficulties which are not related to hearing loss, but it is important to establish whether a hearing loss is a contributory factor.
NHS GG&C NHS