Congenital hearing impairment.

Although early management of children with hearing loss is extremely important, diagnosis is often delayed because the development of hearing-impaired children parallels that of normal infants until the age of nine months. A high-risk registry aids in recognition of hearing-impaired children, but fails to identify those in whom an autosomal recessive defect is responsible. Management includes harnessing the child's residual hearing with hearing aids and teaching parents methods to maximize the child's ability to recognize sounds.