Many parents unaware of warning signs of hearing loss in their children
According to an American study, 46 % of Audiologists and speech-language pathologists in the US experience that parents on average are not aware of the warning signs of hearing loss in their child.
Parents wait too long
The study found that in the US nearly 40% of audiologists and nearly 30 % of speech-language pathologists experienced that on average symptoms of hearing loss go undetected in children for 6 months to 1 year. Even though nearly 60% of both the audiologists and the speech-language pathologists expressed that their patients are aware of the importance of early detection of speech, language and hearing issues, 40% of audiologists and speech-language pathologists believe that on average parents wait 6 months to 1 year before they take action when first observing symptoms of hearing loss in their children.
“There’s a critical period of development in the first seven years of life and if you miss that critical period of time for developing language the child will be left with long term speech and language problems well into adulthood,” said Dr. Desjardins, professor of Audiology at University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) in the US.
Both audiologists and speech-language pathologists believe that the leading barrier to early detection of communication disorders is lack of awareness. Overall, 35% of audiologists and 47% of speech-language pathologists experience lack of awareness to be the reason why many parents do not detect symptoms early.
About the study
The study consisted of a web-based survey which was fielded to a random sample of American Speech Language Hearing Association-certified audiologists and speech-language pathologists in 2018. The study had a total of 1,121 responses.
Sources: “ASHA Early Detection Poll Results” and www.ktsm.com