Incidence of Hearing Loss in Children, Why Early Intervention is Critical

• Hearing loss is the most common birth defect in the United States.  1% of babies are born with profound hearing loss, another 6% are born with partial hearing loss.  Another 3% of children develop hearing loss during early childhood.

• Without programs like Sound Start, children with mild to moderate hearing loss, on average, achieve one to four grade levels lower than their peers with normal hearing. Children with severe to profound hearing loss usually achieve skills no higher than the third- or fourth-grade level.  (The American Speech-Hearing Association)

• When babies with hearing loss get appropriate intervention from birth to age three, they can acquire age appropriate communications skills by the time they are five.  (Robinshaw, 1995 and Moeller, 1996; Yoshinaga-Itano, 1999)

• One hour of early intervention therapy with the child and family learning together translates into 84 hours of education and therapy time when family members follow the model at home with their child on a daily basis.  (Lee Ann Jung, Ph.D.)

• Early identification and intervention for children with hearing loss can save schools approximately $420,000 per child in special education services, and has a lifetime savings to the community of approximately $1 million per individual. (Johnson JL, Mauk GW, Takekawa KM, Simon PR, Sia CCJ, Blackwell PM)