Advances in Pediatric Hearing Loss: A Road to Better Language Outcomes

Hearing loss (HL) is one of the most common birth conditions in the United States, affecting approximately 3 in 1,000 newborns. Depending on the degree of HL, children receive different forms of intervention, e.g., hearing aid (HA) or cochlear implantation (CI). Identifying appropriate management for successful language outcome is still often a lengthy process that frequently leads to long-term delays in children’s language and cognitive development. Some children who receive CIs develop age-appropriate spoken-language skills, but many are significantly behind their typical peers. This enormous variability in outcome is partly due to appropriate interventions being selected too late. Current standard-of-care practices rely on anatomical and audiometric findings to determine infants’ HA or CI candidacy. However, hearing-screening procedures in clinics do not typically include detailed speech-perception measures. Hence, recommendations for treatment are often made without a clear understanding of how well children can process speech input. Here, we explore how some of the techniques and concepts from the field of developmental psychology can be translated for the study of pediatric HL and potentially improve identification and management practices.