Objective To determine whether the benefits of universal newborn hearing screening
(UNHS) seen at age 8 years persist through the second decade. Design Prospective cohort
study of a population sample of children with permanent childhood hearing impairment
(PCHI) followed up for 17 years since birth in periods with (or without) UNHS. Setting Birth
cohort of 100 000 in southern England. Participants 114 teenagers aged 13–19 years, 76
with PCHI and 38 with normal hearing. All had previously their reading assessed aged 6–10 …

About 1 in 1000 children are born each year with hearing impairment sufficiently severe to
compromise speech and language development and communication. There has been much
work in recent years to reduce the age of diagnosis and intervention for these children. The
paper by Pimperton et al, 1 provides important evidence to support the observations of those
working clinically with these children, that early identification and habilitation of significant
hearing impairment in children pays dividends in terms of education. The cohort of children …