Hearing impairments in infants can negatively impact speech, language and social and emotional development. However, these problems can be lessened and even eliminated through early intervention.
Woman’s Outpatient Lab
Offering convenience for laboratory testing:
- Newborn screening
- Prenatal lab work and glucose screening
- Routine lab work for adults and children
Physician Office Building
First floor, Suite 105
225-924-8271
Monday–Friday, 7:00 AM–6:00 PM
Saturday, 7:00 AM–1:00 PM
At Woman's, each infant's hearing is screened using OAE (Otoacoustic Emissions). This is a quick, harmless method for screening hearing. A hearing screen is performed by a hearing technician and supervised by a certified audiologist.
Keep in mind that this procedure is only a screening and simply determines if another test needs to be performed. About one out of every 20 babies needs to be screened a second time.
Reasons a baby may require re-screening include:
- An ear canal blocked with debris.
- Middle ear fluid.
- A possible hearing problem.
If a screening is not passed the first time, or a re-screen is recommended, it is important to reschedule for a follow-up test to obtain more information about your child's hearing status.
To learn more, please refer to our hearing developmental milestone checklist. Even though your child passes an initial screening, you should continue to be aware of his responses to sound.
If at any time you have concerns about your child's hearing ability or speech and language development, or if you need to make an appointment, please call Therapy at 225-924-8450.
0-3 Months
- Is startled or cries when he hears loud, unexpected sounds (e.g., door slamming)
- Is soothed or quieted by sound of parent's voice
- Repeats the same sounds a lot
4-6 Months
- Turns head sideways toward sound source (e.g., noisemakers, rattles, voices)
- Makes babbling sounds that are speech-like (e.g., "ooh" and "ahh") with consonant sounds (e.g., p, b, and m)
- Turns eyes toward you when you call by name
- Tells you (or motions) when he wants you to do something again
7-10 Months
- Directly locates sound from side to side and indirectly locates sound below him at a volume level close to conversational speech
- Stops activity when called
- Imitates different speech sounds
- Uses speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep attention
11-12 Months
- Has a vocabulary of one to three different words (e.g., mama, daa daa)
- Begins to respond to requests
- Recognizes common words (e.g., cup, shoe, juice)
1-2 Years
- Directly locates sounds side to side, and below and above
- Can point to familiar pictures when asked
- Can point to facial body parts when named
- Responds when called from another room
- Begins to combine two words (e.g., want cookie, bye-bye)
- Listens to simple stories, songs and rhymes
- Follows simple commands and understands questions (e.g., roll the ball, kiss the baby, where's your shoe)
- Says more and more words every month