Newborn Hearing Screening Results
When your baby is screened at the hospital, you will be told the results before leaving the hospital.If you are unsure of the screening results, it is very important that you ask before leaving the hospital in the event further screening is needed.
Initial Screening
Re-screening
- Passing the re-screening - the re-screening should be completed prior to the baby being one month of age. Delaying the hearing re-screening may further affect the baby’s speech and language development.As with the initial hearing screening, the results indicate how your baby is hearing at this time.If your baby passes the re-screening, nothing further is needed at this time.
- Not passing the re-screening - if your baby does not pass the re-screening, a medical and audiological evaluation should then be done. Your baby will need to see his/her doctor to help determine if there is a medical reason why the re-screening was not passed. A hearing specialist, called a Diagnostic Audiologist, will also need to be seen. This specialist will do further testing to diagnose any degree of hearing loss.
- Medical and audiological evaluations should be done before your baby is three months of age. The evaluations will confirm the presence of a hearing loss, determine the type, nature and possibly the cause of the hearing loss, and help identify options.
- No later than six months of age the appropriate services and intervention should be started. Any delay will only affect the future of the social and emotional growth and academic achievements.
