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The HPCSA recommends that infants'hearing be tested before the age of six months.  If a hearing loss is identified after the age of six months, the child may already be experiencing a language development delay.

Recommended screening technologies include oto-acoustic emissions (OAE), which assess cochlear (inner ear) functioning, and auditory brainstem responses (ABR), which record neural activity in response to sounds. 

The tests are accurate and take only a few minutes to perform, but are not routinely offered at government hospitals.

Read our exclusive article on Baby Neave from Hout Bay in Cape Town whose hearing impairment was luckily picked up just after birth. She's the youngest baby in SA to get cochlear implant.

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