[Hearing handicap in childhood--responsibilities of public health, early diagnosis].

Serious congenital hearing impairment occur in 1 per 1,000 people. Hereditary disease, perinatal complications, and postnatal disease present particular risk factors. Children, who do not hear or are extremely hard of hearing are slow in their language development and thus become retarded in their mental growth if not given appropriate stimulation. The Counseling Center for the hearing impaired was stablished as a multidisciplinary institution of the Health Office of Berlin-Neukölln for early recognition of and therapy for hearing impaired children. The average age at initial diagnosis of children with hearing impairment in the Federal Republic of Germany is between 3.3-3.4 years according to statistics from 1981. An effort should be made, however, to use the time before the completion of the first year of on's life for an optimal early therapy. Statistics from the Counseling Center for the hearing impaired indicate that at the present time all children with distinct hearing impairments, born in the FRG and West-Berlin, are diagnosed before they reach 32 months of age and are then assigned to special education programs. The average age of recognizing hearing impairments is 13.4 months. This favorable, however not optimal result can be attributed to the situation of a metropolis and its population informed by special professional events for target groups including employees of theYouth Health Services, established pediatricians and ENT specialists, teachers, social workers, educators, and also to the model of the "Berlin-Neukölln Counseling Center" which has proven successful over the past 30 years.