Deaf children being left behind

Deaf children may go on to suffer low academic achievement, lower earnings and poorer health, not because they are deaf but because of the delay in diagnosing their condition, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.

The Joint Committee on Health and Children was told that 25 years ago the State's health service could detect hearing loss when an infant was just 15 months old.

However, the current age is now between three and four years.

In a submission to the committee, the National Association for Deaf People said the age of diagnosis was critical as neuronal pathways in the brain were laid down in the first 18 months of life.

In an undetected deaf baby, the pathways do not develop as well and by the time the deafness is detected, the child is operating with a less than adequate linguistic network. The current option to use a "distraction test" as six weeks and nine months had been discredited, the association argued.

Chief executive of the association Niall Kane told committee chairman John Maloney that "parents turn up in tears when their child is five-years-old because it is too late". And he warned that the delay is costing the State large amounts of money in supports for people whose deafness has not been diagnosed early enough.

According to the association the loss of social economic and health status causes a real cost to the State, which a UK study prices at €1.2 million per deaf person. Against this the cost of introducing Universal Newborn Hearing Screening would be around €5 million a year, with an additional €1 million to improve audiology and early intervention services.