Often called the invisible handicap, hearing loss at any age is traumatic, but it is particularly harmful to infants because of its effect on development.
Research confirms that infants begin learning language during the first six months of life.
During that period when parents and siblings are doing all the talking, the baby is processing sounds so that when the time finally arrives for verbal expression, all of the components are in place. Since language is learned by hearing it, even a mild hearing disorder can affect language development and communication skills. Late detection of hearing loss means that crucial years of stimulating the hearing centers of the brain will have been lost, resulting in retarded social and emotional development. A child can reach the age of two or three before the parents or a doctor discovers a hearing problem. By that time speech and language development are delayed, thus hindering them from developing intellectually at a normal pace.