Preface: newborn hearing screening in the United States: historical perspective and future directions.

Every year, 4000 to 8000 children are born in the United States with permanent hearing losses that pose a risk to their speech and language development.1–3 If children with milder losses and losses that affect only 1 ear are included, that number is almost doubled. Until just a decade ago, late diagnosis was the norm, with the average age at identification of congenital hearing loss reported as 21⁄2 to 3 years or even later.1,4 A valuable window of opportunity for early intervention was being lost. Intervention in the first 6 months of life may be particularly important for speech and language development,5,6 and parents and professionals overwhelmingly prefer early diagnosis.7,8 Technologic advances in automated newborn hearing-screening technology, followed by a series of successful demonstration projects,9 resulted in the introduction of universal newborn hearing screening across the United States in the mid-tolate 1990s. More than 95% of newborns are now screened for hearing loss shortly after birth, which represents one of the most successful and rapid examples of research moving into practice in pediatric public health. Newborn hearing screening is 1 of only 7 preventive services for children recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force.10