Virginia Commonwealth University will use a federal grant to
determine how disabilities that are present at birth affect how
physicians identify, evaluate and treat hearing loss in infants
and young children. "Virginia and other states have made
progress in recent years in detecting hearing loss early in
infants through their Early Hearing Detection and Intervention
programs," said Kathleen B. Lynch, Ph.D., senior research
associate with the VCU School of Education's Partnership for
People with Disabilities. "But as many as 40 percent of these
children may have additional health problems, and confirming a
diagnosis and starting treatment for hearing loss may take a
back seat to treatment of more obvious medical conditions." Each
year, about 100 children in Virginia are born with hearing loss.
The two-year, $300,000 grant from the National Center for Birth
Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention will fund a research project that
will result in a statewide pictur