Dutch audiology.

In the Netherlands audiological care is given at different stages. An attempt is made to screen the hearing of all Dutch babies between the ages of 8 and 12 months. At the age of 4 or over, general audiological care is given by the school medical service; referral is first to a family doctor, who may refer to an otolaryngologist. Curative medical care (examination and therapy) is the province of the family doctor and the otolaryngologist. Otolaryngologists and pediatricians can refer patients to one of 19 Audiological Centers distributed around the country, where a number of workers in different disciplines cooperate for habilitation and rehabilitation. These may include an otolaryngologist in charge, a psychologist, a speech and hearing therapist, an audiologist (usually a physicist or university-trained engineer), social worker, technician, ortho-pedagogue, audiology assistant, and teacher. There are at the moment 25 schools for the hard of hearing and 5 institutes for the deaf. These are often found in conjunction with Audiological Centers, the latter providing paramedical assistance to the pupils by agreement. Finally, the Dutch Organization for Preventive Medicine works to prevent hearing loss in noisy industries.