Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about hearing loss in children.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero definals.com slash hearing loss

or in the E&T section of the Zero to Finals Pediatrics book.

So let's get straight into it.

Hearing loss can be congenital, occurring prior to birth,

or acquired as the result of an illness during childhood.

Let's go through the common causes.

Firstly, the congenital causes are maternal

rubella or cytomegalovirus infection during pregnancy, genetic deafness which can be

autosomal recessive or autosomal dominant, and associated syndromes, for example, Down syndrome.

Next, hearing loss that occurs around the time of birth, which we call perinatal hearing loss,

can be caused by prematureity or hypoxia during or after birth.

Finally, the causes of hearing loss that happen after birth during childhood are jaundice, meningitis and encephalitis, otitis media or glue ear, and chemotherapy.

Let's talk about the presentation.

In the UK, the newborn hearing screening program, or NHSP, test the hearing of all neonates.

This involves special equipment that delivers sound to each ear drum individually and checks for a response.

This can identify congenital hearing problems early.

Children with hearing difficulties may present with parental concerns about their hearing or with behavioural changes associated with not being able to hear.

This may present with ignoring calls or sounds, frustration or bad behaviour,

poor speech and language development, and poor school performance.

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