Incorporation of parental suspicions in screening infants' hearing.

In 1978, in the course of a trial, health visitors in the North and South Nottingham Health Districts asked parents on two occasions 'Do you think your child is hearing normally?'. In that and the following year there was an abrupt increase in referrals of children under one year of age suspected of hearing impairments, which was not observed in the other Health Districts of the Nottinghamshire AHA. There was also an increase in the number of children under one year who were confirmed as having impaired hearing or needing surveillance. It is concluded that the active questioning by health visitors beneficially increased the number of referrals of deaf and other problem children.