Hearing loss and treatment in young Down's syndrome children

Abstract

Twenty-four home-reared Down's syndrome children aged 9-32 months were assessed by trained audiologists on three separate occasions (summer, autumn and spring 1977-1978). Distraction test procedures were used; all failed to pass the screening test and 80-85% registered as having moderate to profound losses. Seventy-five per cent were categorized as having a conductive loss and some improvements were found over the test sessions as a result of surgical and decongestant treatment. Approximately 50% of the infants had been passed on similar screening procedures by the local health services. The results are discussed in relation to language development and service needs.

Wideband energy reflectance findings in presence of normal tympanogram in children with Down's syndrome

“…These results suggest that children with DS are more likely to have relatively smaller ear canal volume and middle ear admittance, which may be suggestive of narrow ear canal and possible middle ear anomalies of stiffness pathology. Several researchers have supported the presence of malformed external ear, narrow ear canals, and associated congenital middle ear anomalies in about 50% of children with DS (48-54%) [19,[52][53][54]. In addition to 226 Hz tympanometry, when possible middle ear anomalies are highly likely, as in DS, it is also helpful to assess middle ear response across a wide frequency range because some middle ear problems mainly affect high frequencies [33].…”

Teaching children with Down syndrome to read

“…In the last ten years, a number of studies report a high incidence of significant hearing loss in young children with Down's syndrome which may be affecting the language development of as many as 80% of infants and toddlers (Cunningham & McArthur 1981). Such losses, even if transitory due to otitis media, will obviously make learning language from listening difficult for the child.…”

Verbal short-term memory deficits in Down syndrome: phonological, semantic, or both?

“…There were only three participants (17.64%) with DS who passed the hearing screening and had no history of hearing difficulties. For participants with DS, failing the hearing screening was not an exclusionary criterion, as more than 50% of individuals with DS experience some hearing loss [50, 51]. However, contributions of hearing difficulties to VSTM were explored in follow-up analyses to ensure that current hearing difficulties were not accounting for the VSTM deficits in our DS sample.…”