The parents are most essential to the teamwork that will enable the child to achieve full potential. Parents have in-depth knowledge of their child and are most familiar with the world the child is trying to understand. They have shared many of their child's experiences, and are their child's first and most important teachers. All children are more likely to explore and learn when they feel secure and loved. Both techniques allow healthcare professionals to determine how well a baby hears and are easy to administer, relatively inexpensive, accurate, and cause no discomfort to the infant.
Early diagnosis is of paramount importance.
The earlier the hearing loss is diagnosed the better for the child. Research indicates babies without a hearing loss hear while in the womb and newborns are comforted by a mother's familiar voice rather than the voice of a stranger. By the time hearing babies speak their first words, they have been listening to language for 10 to 15 months. Meanwhile, children who have a hearing loss do not have the input of speech and language until the loss is diagnosed, the child is fitted with hearing aids, and a program of communication therapies begins. Whatever direction or mode of communication, a family chooses for the child, the child needs a language.