Hearing examination and treatment of newborns

Newborn hearing examination is extremely important. We must pay great attention to it and never ignore our newborn hearing examination. Many newborns may be born with hearing impairment. If we discover it in time, we can take certain methods to treat it. If the disease is delayed, our hearing will become worse and worse. Many people may not understand the problem of newborn hearing very well. Let us follow the article to learn about the methods and treatments of newborn hearing examination!

Examination and treatment methods:

1. Medical intervention

Medical intervention is when a physician makes a medical diagnosis, i.e. the cause, extent, and location of hearing loss, and uses treatment to restore hearing.

Earwax in the external auditory canal: In newborns and infants, there is too much earwax and it is difficult to be discharged naturally, which may block the external auditory canal. In this case, the use of otoacoustic emission testing can often cause the otoacoustic emission energy to disappear, and may also affect the acoustic impedance test, so the external auditory canal cerumen must be cleared.

Acute secretory otitis media: Acute secretory otitis media in infancy and childhood is often caused by upper respiratory tract infection and immune allergy. It can cause tympanic effusion and hearing loss. It can be diagnosed based on clinical symptoms, ear microscopic examination, and audiological examination, including otoacoustic emissions and acoustic impedance examination. Etiological treatment can be used, steroid hormones and anti-allergic drugs can be used, and ephedrine can be dropped into the nasal cavity. If drug treatment is ineffective, transtympanic membrane puncture and drainage, incision and drainage, and transtympanic membrane ventilation tube installation can be used. To improve and restore the hearing of children.

Congenital malformations of the external and middle ear: Different surgical treatments are used depending on the classification of the malformation, on the one hand, external ear plastic surgery and auricle reconstruction, and on the other hand, hearing improvement. For bilateral auricle and external auditory canal deformities, hearing aids should be selected as early as possible to promote speech and language development.

2. Hearing compensation or reconstruction

Hearing compensation or reconstruction mainly includes hearing aid fitting and cochlear implantation.

Hearing aid selection: Children with permanent sensorineural hearing loss should be fitted with hearing aids. The degree of hearing impairment is generally moderate to severe. Some experts even advocate that even children with mild hearing impairment should be fitted with hearing aids for hearing correction. People with unilateral hearing loss can also be fitted with hearing aids. Bilateral hearing loss should be matched with bilateral hearing aids. The advantages of binaural matching are that it helps to distinguish the sound source, improve the ability to direct the sound source, has a good integration effect, and increases the loudness of the sound.

Cochlear implant: A cochlear implant is a transducer that simulates the function of the human cochlea. It converts sound signals into electrical signals through a speech processor, transmits them to the electrodes in the inner ear, directly excites the auditory nerve, and thus produces hearing. The cochlear implant device is mainly divided into two parts: the implant part (including the receiving device and multiple electrodes) and the external part (including headphones, transmitters, speech processors, etc.). For children with bilateral severe or profound sensorineural hearing impairment who have no obvious effect after using hearing aids for 3-6 months, a cochlear implant preoperative evaluation should be performed at around 10 months of age, and it is recommended that cochlear implant surgery be performed as soon as possible.

3. Auditory function training and speech-language rehabilitation training.

After the child has been fitted with a hearing aid and has had his or her hearing corrected by a cochlear implant, he or she needs to undergo auditory function training and speech-language rehabilitation training. Physicians, audiologists, speech-language therapists, special educators, and psychologists need to be involved. It is important to build a long-term relationship with the child to support the child's hearing and language development so that the child can hear sounds and understand speech.

The contents of auditory function training include: auditory perception; auditory attention; auditory localization; auditory recognition; auditory memory; auditory selection; auditory feedback.

Speech-language rehabilitation training: The speech training program includes phoneme, syllable, word, and short sentence training. The following points should be followed for language rehabilitation: 1. If conditions permit, it is best to conduct systematic training in a rehabilitation center; 2. Stimulate the language interest of deaf children; 3. Proceed step by step, from phonemes to short sentences, and repeat the process; 4. Grasp the speech behavior link and arrange the content of the conversation. Speech-language rehabilitation training is evaluated by speech recognition rate and language expression rate

The above content introduces the content and treatment methods of newborn hearing examination. When our newborn has poor hearing, we must seize the time for treatment. We must not miss the best time for treatment, which will cause greater impact on our newborn.