Down Syndrome : Hearing Impairment and early preparation and intervention.

1 in 800 children in the world has down syndrome.

80% of children with Down Syndrome suffers from hearing impairment. It can be caused by middle ear (conductive loss) or inner ear issues (sensorineural hearing loss).  A lot of precautions needed to be aware about when it comes to preparing a child with Down Syndrome as early intervention is the key.

As a pregnant woman i am right now, i too am very anxious when it comes to what to expect of the little one that i am carrying. But being an audiologist, i have been exposed to the importance of early intervention hence i have the courage to visit the sonographer and since i am an eager fan of prenatal screening. Nowadays, preparation for mothers to be are amazing and you can know as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy if you are carrying a child with down syndrome. It is imperative that us parents to check our little ones if they need early intervention or extra early care in advance.

As statistics and studies has further agreed that children with down syndrome also will go through a degree of mental retardation from mild to severe which further enhances the fact that these children needs early intervention. 

When they are born, precautions on how they are fed is important to avoid middle ear issues such as their middle ear tube ie: eustachian tube can be dysfuntional easily as they have a flatter tubing compared to us adults due to exposure to adult smoking or feeding milk while they are laid flat etc.

Our test battery to assists parents in understanding their childs status of hearing would be :

1- Hearing screening

- Otoscopic Examination

- Tympanometry

- Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR) with inserts (to avoid collapsed ear canal)

- Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE)

Then, if found to have hearing impairment, further diagnostic assessment will be done.

2- Diagnostic Hearing Assessment

- Otoscopic Examination

- Tympanometry

- Diagnostic Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) with inserts  (to avoid collapsed ear canal)

- oacoustic Emissions (OAE)

At birth, you can see their beautiful features :

• flat facial features
• small head and ears
• short neck
• bulging tongue
• eyes that slant upward  
• atypically shaped ears   
• poor muscle tone

Having said that, so many successful real life stories of these individuals i have encountered. My own daughter had an assistant kindergarten teacher with down syndrome, cousins and friends who are attending school because they had an amazing exposure and early intervention when they had the window of opportunity (0-5yo) for early intervention.

In Malaysia, we have Kiwanis and Persatuan Sindrom Down to name a few to support parents and children with Down  Syndrome. The support available is just incredible and as i have said before, children with down syndrome can have a bright bright future with early intervention.

Before i end this piece, here is an amazing story about this "Johns Crazy Socks". John’s Crazy Socks is a father-son venture inspired by John Lee Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome, and his love of colorful and fun socks, or what he calls his “crazy socks.” Crazy or not, to me its amazing and i wish for more successful stories from our community in Malaysia. 

The world is our oyster, if we know our strength..

As a parent, " their world is their oyster, as long as we know in advance their strength".

To parents out there, family, friends with down syndrom children, may the force be with you and do share with us your success stories so more parents in our community are empowered!

Love,

Dr Shasa Aziz

CEO and Founder of Eartistic Sdn Bhd

References:

http://www.puravidasanantonio.com/kids-chiropractor/childhood-ear-infections/

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42353259 

https://www.healthline.com/health/down-syndrome#symptoms

Catch our promotion this month.
Free Hearing Assessment for anyone Down Syndrome  from the 26th -31st of March 2016.
Call us to book your appointment within this week or book an appt on our website.