Contemporary Management of Children with Hearing Loss

Abstract

Hearing loss has a significant impact on children’s ability to develop adequate language and communication skills and often interferes with educational performance as well as limits long-term employment opportunities. Hearing loss is categorized into three broad categories: Conductive, Sensorineural, and Mixed. Audiology workup aims to identify the category and the level of hearing loss; evaluation is divided into subjective and objective tests. Rehabilitation is available to almost all kinds and degrees of hearing loss if diagnosed and managed in a timely manner. For that, we need to increase the awareness of the families and health care providers as well about the screening programs and advocate its implementation in all maternity and child care centers. In this chapter, we discuss acquired and congenital causes of hearing loss. We will also address the diagnostic workup, and finally will discuss in detail the recent developments in pediatric hearing rehabilitation.

Keywords: Cochlear implant, Congenital, Genetics, Hearing aids, Hearing loss, Pediatrics, Syndrome.

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