Neonatal hearing screening in the process of diagnosis and hearing rehabilitation

Abstract

Introduction: neonatal hearing screening aims the early identification of hearing loss. Despite the existence of Laws regarding it, there are still several cases of notable delays in the access of hearing loss services for diagnosis and intervention. Objective: describe the role of neonatal hearing screening in the process of diagnosis and hearing rehabilitation of zero to seven years old children attended in an Ambulatorial Service of Hearing Health on the North Coast of Santa Catarina.. Methodology: use of a questionnaire with 30 parents or legal responsible for children with hearing loss, using descriptive and inferential statistic as method of analysis. Findings: considering the 30 children, 86,66% underwent neonatal hearing screening, from which 96,15% had the first test done and 34,62% had the retest done during their first month of life; 15,38% had a diagnosis until they were three months old and 6,66% the intervention before becoming 6 months old. 16,66% of monitoring and intervention were identified regarding basic care, reinforcing the importance of hearing screening as a way of tracking and identification. Conclusion: the results indicate that the accomplishment of neonatal hearing screening has an important role for the access of an early hearing loss diagnosis, although the ideal ages for the diagnosis and for intervention are fall short from the expected. The importance of basic care capacitation is emphasized, in order to have efficient monitoring and support for children with risk or confirmed hearing loss.