ABSTRACT
Hearing is an important sensory function. The development of good hearing is of great significance for development as a whole and notably for speech development and language acquisition. Late discovery of hearing impairment may result in a disruption of development. At Child Health Clinics the hearing functions of young children have always been checked, but from the 1960s onward this has taken place systematically on all children by means of a standardized screening method: the Ewing test. The aim of this method is to detect all hearing impairments at the age of about 9 months. In this chapter, normal hearing is briefly discussed, then the various types of impairment. Subsequently, attention is given to the problem of secretory otitis media (SOM) and its detection, the objective and function of screening and the methods of measuring whether or not the objective has been or is being attained.
