Question
How to treat pediatric hearing impairment?
Answer
Experts recommend that pediatric hearing assessments should be conducted within three months of birth, with diagnoses completed within six months. The goal is to allow children to receive intervention treatment as early as possible. Before introducing intervention measures, several precautions should be mentioned. From the causes of hearing impairment already discussed, it is first necessary to ensure prenatal maternal health care to prevent infections such as rubella and CMV virus, which not only reduce neonatal hearing impairment but also prevent many congenital diseases. Second, improving the quality of neonatal wards in obstetric departments can reduce the incidence of severe perinatal diseases, such as timely detection and appropriate treatment of pathological jaundice, and strict control of ototoxic drug use during the neonatal period. Additionally, attention must be given to the prevention of various diseases after birth, as well as the impact of environmental noise. For children diagnosed with hearing impairment, different medical intervention measures should be taken based on the different causes. Medical interventions include medical diagnoses provided by doctors and medical or surgical treatment recommendations for hearing loss and related diseases. Treatment plans include removing earwax, resolving effusion otitis media, hearing reconstruction surgery, and cochlear implantation. Audiology rehabilitation is also an important aspect, provided through personalized sound amplification devices and sensory devices, i.e., the use of hearing aids, to offer compensatory or substitute treatment. The aim is to enable children wearing hearing aids to obtain the characteristics of speech sounds to the maximum extent possible, with the intensity of the sounds they hear within a safe and comfortable audible range. The assessment and intervention of communication skills are the new recommendations for comprehensive intervention for deaf children, aiming to improve and form communication abilities that are age-appropriate.