Selective hearing screening for young children

A "selective" hearing screening program was instituted in an early education project. Three-year-old children were deemed "at risk" for mild-to-moderate hearing loss if they met one of the risk criteria established by the Joint Com mittee on Infant Hearing Screening, if they had recurrent ear infections, or if there was parent or staff concern about the child's hearing. Based on these criteria, 31 per cent of the 228 children in the project were eligible for full audiologic evaluation at a speech and hearing center. The parents of 45 chil dren took advantage of this special evaluation. Twenty-nine per cent of these selected children had some hearing loss documented. The highest yields of abnormal hearing were for children "at risk" because of recurrent ear infec tions (42%), and parent or educational staff concern (71%).