The grant provides funds to enhance Sound Beginnings , Kansas Newborn Hearing Screening Program authorized by the Kansas Legislature in 1999 and signed into law by Governor Graves. Hearing loss is the most frequently occurring congenital disorder found in newborns. Eighty percent of a child s ability to learn speech, language and related cognitive skills is established by the time the child is three.
Hearing is vitally important to the development of oral language skills.
Sound Beginnings assures that every newborn in Kansas is given a hearing screening test before being released from the hospital. The program helps the family get immediate pediatric attention because it is essential that hearing diagnosis be completed by the time the infant is three months of age.