Newborn Hearing Screening Effective January 1, 2002, state law
mandates screening the hearing of all infants born in Missouri.
The Missouri Newborn Hearing Screening Program provides support
to facilities and professionals who undertake the pediatric care
of newborns in an effort to identify hearing loss, collects
information about hearing screenings in order to provide figures
for program planning and evaluation and assists families in
getting the services they may need. The following pages will
provide information and answer questions you may have about
testing for hearing loss in infants. The purpose of Missouri's
Newborn Hearing Screening Program is to identify infants with
hearing loss and link them with services, by six months of age.
It is important to detect a hearing loss in the earliest days of
a baby's life. A baby begins to understand language and speech
at birth. Your baby needs to hear in order to develop speech and
language skills. Early identification and treatment of hearing
loss are essentia