A POSITIVE TONE: River Park begins hearing screenings tomorrow
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But after giving birth to daughter Gracie, now 1, and learning of the child’s hearing loss on her own, she hopes her message will resonate with others and encourage them to utilize the newborn hearing screenings at River Park Hospital.
“If they would have approached me a year ago when I was having her, I would like to say that for her well-being, I would have done it. And I wouldn’t have questioned it,” Hubbard said. “And I wouldn’t have taken it real seriously because we have no hearing loss in our family and I wasn’t at a high risk for hearing loss.”
Hubbard and spouse Randy ended up noticing the hearing problem early, to their daughter’s benefit, when Gracie didn’t respond well to noise.
“The telephone and the alarm did not phase her. She didn’t startle to sound,” Hubbard said, adding a follow-up visit to the doctor confirmed their fears.
After getting the proper referral, she learned of early intervention programs available through the state offered to children ages birth to 3. Since then, she has learned the value of early detection, which can help to avoid problems when a child enters school, for example.
Hubbard said the sooner parents learn of the hearing impairment, the better.
“Children are usually identified with hearing loss at 14 months and that’s because they’re not speaking as well as they should be and the parents have concerns,” she said. “At that point, they’ve already lost important speech and language skills and some of those skills are impossible to ever get back.”
Gracie was fitted with hearing aids at 3 months old. The couple later learned only one ear is capable of hearing, so Gracie has one hearing aid. She has already started speech therapy.
Dr. John Purvis, a champion of the new hospital program, said the screenings will be offered for newborns in the hospital’s nursery beginning tomorrow.
Nurses have been training on the equipment for about a month. The screenings are touted as non-invasive but effective. Purvis said he expects the tests, which cost $44 and may be covered by insurance, to detect one to two babies with hearing loss per year.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure that by 1 month of age, that every child has an accurate hearing screening, ” Purvis said, adding that a baby should be referred to a hearing specialist by 3 months and enter speech therapy by 6 months old if problems are detected.
“It’s important for kids to have this done. If you catch it early, you can get them into therapy so they can develop communication skills,” he added.