Developmental Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss Born in Colorado Hospitals with and Without Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programs

The developmental outcomes of children born in hospitals with universal newborn hearing screening programs were compared with children born in hospitals without universal newborn hearing screening programs. Eight-four percent of children born in screening hospitals were early-identified with hearing loss prior to 6 months of age as compared to 8% of the children in the non-screen group. The participants in the screen group had an average language quotient of 82 while the participants in the non-screen group had an average language quotient of 62. Children in the screen group had better receptive and expressive language quotients, more different consonants in the spontaneous phonetic repertoire, better speech intelligibility, and larger expressive vocabulary inventories. Odds risk ratio estimates indicate that 80% of the children with cognitive quotients 80 or greater or four out of five children had language quotients within the normal range, 80 or greater, when they were in the screen group.