Chch children have their hearing tested

Press, 17 February 1983, Page 12

Chch children have their hearing tested

Hearing tests by Health Department staff on primary schoolchildren began last week in Christchurch.

The tests are part of a pilot scheme for screening all primary schoolchildren. If the scheme is a success, it will be introduced throughout New Zealand.

Children aged five and seven are being tested this year in Christchurch. Health Department staff plan to work their way through all primary schools in the district, testing children's hearing.

Next year, they will start again, testing children of the same age, so that eventually they will reach every child up to Standard 1. During school holidays, the test the hearing of children aged three. In the summer holidays, the tests were conducted at various shopping malls, and these will be continued in May and August, according to the Deputy Medical Officer c Health. Dr M. A. Brieseman. “We would like to be able to test the same number of three-year-olds as we do five-year-olds and seven-year-olds, but until they start school, we do not have the easy access,” he said. “So we just have to hope that their parents will bring them to us. Door-to-door visits are out of the question.”

Only a very small percentage of Christchurch's three-year-olds had been tested during the summer holidays. The hearing tests are of middle ear function, where problems are most common in young children. “Up to 25 per cent of children can be affected by a middle ear problem, most commonly the condition known as glue ear," Dr Brieseman said.

“It does not cause permanent deafness, but even shortterm deafness can cause problems for children and retard their development at school." he said.

So far, about 10 per cent of the school children tested had been suffering from a middle ear problem, but none had been of a serious

nature. Dr Brieseman said.

In January, the testing of pre-school children had picked up one child with a particularly bad hearing problem. This child was now being referred for treatment, he said.

The Health Department is also supervising a programme to identify new-born babies with hearing difficulties.

The programme is being run nationally, and hospital staff working in obstetrics and neo-natal care have been asked by the department to check all new-born babies for deafness..

These tests are only just beginning at Christchurch Women's Hospital and other obstetric hospitals in the city.