Don’t wait to make a referral. That’s the key message the Seattle Children’s Audiology team wants to emphasize with Washington community providers who suspect an infant or toddler patient may have hearing problems.
“Early identification and intervention for hearing issues are critical to help a child’s brain learn how to identify sounds and develop spoken language,” said Dr. Erin Christianson, Division Head, Seattle Children’s Audiology. “If there’s any indication that a baby or young child may be struggling to hear, please refer them as soon as possible for clinical help. The first two years of life are the peak window for auditory cortex development. Delays in referring patients with suspected hearing loss can compromise their abilities for spoken language later. When in doubt, refer early.”
Hearing problems can come from a variety of causes, at any time of life. Sometimes patients are born with hearing loss, or it may come later after they have started using spoken language and hearing the world around them. Watch for signs of patient hearing loss over time due to illness or injury, and refer them to a healthcare system with pediatric audiology expertise for help. Additionally, if a patient with a hearing aid is still experiencing language or developmental delays, consider referring them for intervention and support.
Cochlear Implants Can Make Life-Changing Benefits for Patients Patients with more severe hearing loss may not benefit enough from a hearing aid to support spoken language development and may be considered for a cochlear implant (CI). Unlike a traditional hearing aid, which simply amplifies sound into the auditory system, a CI is a surgically implanted electronic medical device that bypasses damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) to directly stimulate the auditory nerve, sending electrical signals that the brain can learn to interpret as meaningful sounds, words and language.
For patients born with significant hearing loss or those who experience progressive hearing loss over time, an implant can provide critical access to sound needed for them to develop spoken language and safely navigate their environment. Because these implants can make such a huge difference in quality of life for patients, the FDA recently approved cochlear implants for children with normal hearing in one ear and profound hearing loss in the other (single-sided deafness).
What Kinds of Patients Should be Referred? Primary care physicians should refer patients meeting any of the following conditions:
- Severe to profound hearing loss – including infants who fail their newborn hearing screenings and show bilateral severe hearing loss on follow-up diagnostic ABR testing.
- Lack of progress with hearing aids – consider children who have been fit with hearing aids but show minimal or plateaued progress in their speech or auditory development.
- Progressive or post-lingual hearing loss – including patients who lose their hearing later in childhood due to illness, trauma or progressive genetic conditions.
- Single-sided deafness (SSD) – for children with profound hearing loss in just one ear, CIs are increasingly utilized to restore improved binaural hearing.
Seattle Children’s is Ready to Help Patients who may be candidates for a CI can be referred to the Seattle Children’s Childhood Communication Center, which is home to the Cochlear Implant Program. For all other hearing issues please refer patients to Seattle Children’s Audiology Program, which will triage incoming requests and may flag new patients and transfer them to the Childhood Communication Center if they are a good candidate for a CI.
If a patient is a good candidate for a CI referral, keep in mind that Seattle Children’s:
- Has the first and longest-standing pediatric-dedicated CI program in the region
- Utilizes telehealth appointments whenever possible to make appointments easier for families
- Offers specialized care to help children with complex medical needs, such as vestibular dysfunction or developmental delays alongside their hearing loss
- Provides a multidisciplinary, comprehensive and collaborative team that includes experienced surgeons, audiologists, psychologists (to support family expectations/readiness) and specialists in auditory habilitation therapy
To provide better access to care for providers and patients in the South Sound region, Seattle Children’s is expanding pediatric audiology services in its Federal Way location starting Oct. 1, with services including diagnostic testing, hearing device services, aural habilitation, and coordinated care with Otolaryngology.
To learn more, visit the Seattle Children’s Cochlear Implant Program page and the Childhood Communication Center refer a patient page.