A hearing screening is a quick test to see how well you hear different sounds. You either pass or fail the screening. If you pass, you do not need to do anything else. If you fail, you may need more testing to see if you have a hearing loss. Newborn hearing screening is the standard of care in hospitals nationwide. The primary purpose of newborn hearing screening is to identify newborns who are likely to have hearing loss and who require further evaluation. A secondary objective is to identify newborns with medical conditions that can cause late-onset hearing loss and to establish a plan for continued monitoring of their hearing status (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing [JCIH], 2007). The EHDI guidelines include hearing screening completion by 1 month of age, diagnosis of any hearing loss by 3 months of age, hearing aid selection and fitting within 1 month of confirmation of hearing loss if parents choose that option, and entry into early intervention (EI) services by 6 months of age.
What Is Speech? Speech is how we say sounds and words. Speech includes: Articulation How we make speech sounds using the mouth, lips, and tongue. For example, we need to be able to say the “r” sound to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit.” Voice How we use our vocal folds and breath to make sounds. Our voice can be loud or soft or high- or low-pitched. We can hurt our voice by talking too much, yelling, or coughing a lot. What words mean. Some words have more than one meaning. For example, “star” can be a bright object in the sky or someone famous. How to make new words. For example, we can say “friend,” “friendly,” or “unfriendly” and mean something different. How to put words together. For example, in English we say, “Peg walked to the new store” instead of “Peg walk store new.” What we should say at different times. For example, we might be polite and say, “Would you mind moving your foot?” But, if the person does not move, we may say, “Get off my foot!” Language and Speech Disorders We can have trouble with speech, language, or both. Having trouble understanding what others say is a receptive language disorder. Having problems sharing our thoughts, ideas, and feelings is an expressive language disorder. It is possible to have both a receptive and an expressive language problem.