Follow-up at 11 years of 46 children with severe unilateral hearing loss at 7 years

SUMMARY In the ongoing NCDS, 44 children of the 46 identified at 7 years as having a serious unilateral hearing loss were followed up at 11 years. Half of them had recovered normal bilateral hearing, the remainder still had serious deafness in one ear. Although at 7 years the 46 children as a group had shown backwardness in oral ability, speech and reading, at 11 years both the 'recovered' and the 'persistent' were similar to their age peers in scholastic attainment. Despite their original apparent difficulty it was encouraging to find that several children in both subgroups were noted as possessing outstanding academic ability. It is concluded that with prompt follow-up by an alerted school doctor, children with unilateral deafness at age 7 years are likely to progress satisfactorily in later childhood.