The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has made a podcast available on its Web site about hearing screening for public school students.
Hearing screenings are critical because without the proper identification and treatment, more than one-third of school-aged children with mild or unilateral hearing loss are projected to fail at least one grade in school, according to ASHA.
The podcast reports that a child with mild hearing loss can miss as much as half of what goes on in a classroom. An estimated 2.5 million school-aged children in the United States having mild or hearing loss in one ear, ASHA said.
Hearing screenings of school-aged children vary nationally in standards, quality, and availability, the group said.
