AUDIOLOGY STILL CHANGING

So then came the glorious year of 2007. In 2007 the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) mentioned the following in their Position Statement, “Developmental monitoring should also occur at regular 6 month intervals for special populations of children with hearing loss including those with minimal and mild bilateral hearing loss, unilateral hearing loss, and neural hearing loss, because these children are at risk of having speech and language delay.” (pg 21; JCIH).

Yes, you are reading it right, it states in simple black and white. 'A Minimal loss can cause speech and language delay' (minimal does not sound so minimal, what a 'BAD' word). As you learned in the last post, Alex had a known 'Minimal' loss at 2 years old according to the JCIH, minimal loss could cause a speech and language delay. Alex has a speech and language delay, he has never had the opportunity for hearing aids, so hearing has not been ruled out appropriately. Any scientist knows that in order to properly rule out a possibility, you must subject your hypothesis to the condition. You never make an assumption.