How to Identify Vision & Hearing Problems in Babies

Identifying vision and hearing problems in babies is essential to allowing those babies to grow and develop in a healthy manner. Vision problems can stall development, and can eventually make prereading skills more difficult to master. Hearing problems can affect a child's articulation and understanding of the world around her.

Instructions

Identifying Vision Problems

• 1

  Make sure that your newborn has had all vision-related procedures completed. As a newborn, she should have been checked for any problems, including glaucoma or cataracts. At each well visit through the first six months, your child's pediatrician should check eye health and alignment, as well as proper vision development.

• 2

  By the time your baby is 3 months old, you can check to see whether he can track an object with his eyes. To do this, move it gradually across his line of vision and watch to see whether his eyes follow the path of the object.

• 3

  Watch to see if your baby makes steady eye contact and keeps her eyes aligned properly. Although occasional crossed eyes before 4 months is normal, permanent crossed eyes or a lazy eye should be brought to your doctor's attention immediately.

Identifying Hearing Problems

• 4

  As a newborn, your baby should have been given a hearing test at the hospital. The health-care professionals at the hospital would have administered either an Otoacoustic Emissions test or an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test.

• 5

  If your child is younger than 4 months, check whether she startles in response to loud noises, looks toward sudden sounds, and stops moving in response to speech or unfamiliar noises.

• 6

  By the time your child is a year old, make sure that he imitates sounds around him, understands names of common objects and simple commands, and can speak at least one word.

• 7

  Ask your child's pediatrician to refer your infant for testing if you have any concerns based on the previous two steps. If your child is younger than 4 months, your doctor will probably recommend ABR testing. If your child is between 4 months and 2 1/2 years, your doctor will probably recommend Visual Response Audiometry (VRA) testing.