By Anna Gorman 4:45 PM EST, January 15, 2013 Parul Bhatia, a
pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, remembers the
patient well. The girl was 3 years old and profoundly deaf. Even
though she had failed a hearing test at birth, she hadn’t been
treated for hearing loss. In the three-year study, local
children were tested during routine pediatric visits at the
Venice Family Clinic and at clinics run by AltaMed Health
Services Corp. Of nearly 2,000 children screened, 10% failed
initial screening in at least one ear and five had permanent
hearing loss. Bhatia said the study, which was published in the
January issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral
Pediatrics, highlighted the importance of doing periodic
screening and showed that such tests could identify more
children and lead to earlier intervention. “These are critical
years for language and communication development,” she said. If
the hearing loss isn’t found until the child is 4 or 5 years
old, she said, “it is much harder to catch up at