Hearing loss affects speech development

Dubai: A senior specialist has warned that hearing loss puts a child's normal speech and language development in jeopardy and advises any hearing impairment should be identified in the first few years of a child's life.

Prof Anne Marie Tharpe said 40 per cent of children who have hearing loss also experience other disabilities. She said, "There are a number of risk factors that can result in developmental delays in children including environmental exposures, meningitis and syndromes such as autism."

She was speaking at the Otolaryngology exhibition and conference in Dubai which runs until tomorrow. Prof Tharpe is sciences associate director of the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Centre in Connecticut, USA.