The parents' view on hearing screening in newborns. Feelings, thoughts and opinions on otoacoustic emissions screening.

Since September 1995, universal hearing screening of newborns has been carried out at the Linköping University Hospital with the aid of otoacoustic emissions. The present study is based on interviews with parents in order to get their views on neonatal hearing screening. A total of 49 persons participated in the interviews, the parents of 26 children. A clearly positive attitude to the test was expressed by a majority of parents, and the screening seemed to cause very little anxiety. Parents whose child passed directly, or after one re-test, were very positive to hearing screening. The few parents whose children had to be tested more than twice took a more ambivalent view. Anxiety was evoked when the child did not pass the first retest; this was a critical point. Another important point was when parents finally were given a definite answer as to whether the child had a hearing impairment or not; the anxiety then seemed to fade. These parents need individual counselling and support during the time of audiological assessment, and a plan for future action. From the parents' perspective the advantage of hearing screening is the potential to help and understand their child at the earliest possible time if a hearing impairment is detected.

[1]  R. Dixon,et al.  Maternal anxiety and attitudes to universal neonatal hearing screening. , 1998, British journal of audiology.

[2]  P. Jusczyk,et al.  Infants' memory for spoken words. , 1997, Science.

[3]  M Forshaw,et al.  A critical review of the role of neonatal hearing screening in the detection of congenital hearing impairment. , 1997, Health technology assessment.

[4]  B R Vohr,et al.  Referral rates and cost efficiency in a universal newborn hearing screening program using transient evoked otoacoustic emissions. , 1995, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[5]  C. Yoshinaga-Itano,et al.  Early Identification of Infants with Significant Hearing Loss and the Minnesota Child Development Inventory , 1995 .

[6]  H. Robinshaw.  Early intervention for hearing impairment: differences in the timing of communicative and linguistic development. , 1995, British journal of audiology.

[7]  P. Watkin,et al.  The views of parents of hearing impaired children on the need for neonatal hearing screening. , 1995, British journal of audiology.

[8]  F. Bess,et al.  Universal screening for infant hearing impairment: not simple, not risk-free, not necessarily beneficial, and not presently justified. , 1994, Pediatrics.

[9]  T. Behrens,et al.  Historical, Political, and Technological Context Associated with Early Identification of Hearing Loss , 1993 .

[10]  T. Ramkalawan,et al.  The effects of hearing loss and age of intervention on some language metrics in young hearing-impaired children. , 1992, British journal of audiology.

[11]  L. Petitto,et al.  Babbling in the manual mode: evidence for the ontogeny of language. , 1991, Science.

[12]  G. Bodegård,et al.  Four‐Year Follow‐up of Psychological Reactions to False Positive Screening Tests for Congenital Hypothyroidism , 1987, Acta paediatrica Scandinavica.

[13]  T. Tymstra.  False positive results in screening tests: experiences of parents of children screened for congenital hypothyroidism. , 1986, Family practice.

[14]  C. Trevarthen,et al.  Signs of Motivation for Speech in Infants, and the Nature of a Mother’s Support for Development of Language , 1986 .

[15]  A. Markides.  Age at fitting of hearing aids and speech intelligibility. , 1986, British journal of audiology.

[16]  M. Greenberg.  Family Stress and Child Competence: The Effects of Early Intervention for Families with Deaf Infants , 1983, American annals of the deaf.

[17]  M. Ainsworth,et al.  Attachment as Related to Mother-Infant Interaction , 1979 .