Causes and Prevention of Deafness in Childhood

Abstract

Hearing problems in children must be diagnosed early in order to prevent deafness in later life.

Tests for determining deafness in children less than five years old should be conducted by trained personnel. Audiometric studies are usually reliable and valuable in testing hearing in older children.

A study of school children in Nebraska showed conduction deafness to he the most common type of hearing loss. Removal of obstructive tonsils and adenoids resulted in marked improvement in hearing.

Other types of hearing loss encountered in the study included perception and mixed-type deafness. One case of otosclerosis was observed.