Diagnosis of deafness in preschool children.

Hearing and speech disorders in children are often not due to actual defects in the ear or speech organs. Supposed loss of hearing and speech can occur in children who hear well but who cannot identify the words, understand their meaning or express them because of damage to certain brain centers and nerve pathways in conditions called aphasia, psychic disorders and mental deficiency. The child uses his special senses (hearing, sight, touch, feel and smell) to establish contact with his environment and of these senses, hearing is most important because it helps to build the best avenue of communication with his immediate world. As the deafened child can usually be helped by treatment, it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis early in order that the proper measures may be instituted in the first five years of life.