Legislative Findings and Intent

I Liheslaturan Guåhan hereby finds that significant hearing loss is one of the most common major abnormalities present at birth and, if undetected, will impede the child=s speech, language, and cognitive development. Screening by high-risk characteristics alone (e.g., family history of deafness) only identifies approximately fifty percent (50%) of newborns with significant hearing loss. Reliance solely on physician and/or parental observation fails to identify many cases of significant hearing loss in newborns and infants. There is evidence that children with hearing loss, who are identified at birth and receive intervention services shortly thereafter, have significantly better learning capacity than children who are identified with hearing loss later than six

(6)months after birth. Legislation is needed to provide for the early detection of hearing loss in newborns and infants and to prevent or mitigate the developmental delays associated with late identification of hearing loss. Through tracking and surveillance of COL 110609 CH. 4 UNIVERSAL NEWBORN H EARING SCREENING AND INTERVENTION ACT (UNHSIA) OF 2004 infants with hearing impairments, the loss to follow-up services is alleviated. It is therefore the intent of I Liheslaturan Guåhan to provide for the early detection and intervention of hearing loss in newborn children at the hospital or as soon after birth as possible, to enable these children and their families/caregivers to obtain needed multi-disciplinary evaluation, treatment, and intervention services at the earliest opportunity and to prevent or mitigate the developmental delays and academic failures associated with late identification of hearing loss. Furthermore, I Liheslaturan Guåhan intends to provide the community of Guam with the information necessary to effectively plan, establish, and evaluate a comprehensive system of appropriate services for newborns and infants who have a hearing loss or are deaf and to further provide assurance that a smooth transition from the current Federally-funded health initiative in hearing screening, detection, and intervention is made from the University of Guam, Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Services (UOG CEDDERS) to the Department of Public Health and Social Services (DPH&SS).