Thank you very much.
My name is Gillian Barnes. I am president of the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists, or CASLPA. With me today is Ondina Love, CASLPA's executive director.
First let me explain a little bit about what CASLPA does. We represent more than 5,500 speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and supportive personnel in Canada who work to maximize the communication and hearing potential of Canadians. Speech-language pathologists have expertise in typical development, assessment, and intervention, and in communication and swallowing disorders. Audiologists have expertise in identifying and managing individuals with peripheral or central hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance disorders. CASLPA understands that government must monitor expenditures closely to get the best value for taxpayer dollars. By spending smarter, government can achieve larger social goals without increasing financial obligations. Indeed, in some cases, smart spending saves money in the long run.
There are two areas in which the government can act. The first is the early identification of speech disorders. Eight to twelve percent of preschool-aged children have some form of language impairment. Most are not identified until well after they fail to begin speaking, generally when they are two or three years old. This is simply too late and unduly hinders communication development, leaving children at an academic and social disadvantage. Untreated speech and language disorders can cause serious and significant social problems for affected children that, in addition to contributing to difficulties in learning, have a real negative effect on their lives and the lives of their families, not to mention society in general. The federal government should provide targeted funding for identification of and intervention in these disorders.
Our second recommendation is for the Canada-wide adoption of universal newborn hearing screening programs. As you most likely read in The Globe and Mail this morning, CASLPA launched a campaign to this end yesterday on Parliament Hill. Three to five children per thousand in Canada will have some hearing loss. The average child with significant hearing loss won't be diagnosed until they are nearly two and a half years old. For moderate hearing issues, problems are unlikely to be identified until school age. This need not be the case. A simple, non-invasive, highly accurate test exists that can quickly screen for hearing loss in newborns and can be performed before they leave the hospital. More importantly, in an era where medical diagnostics can present a burden on health budgets, this test is inexpensive, costing only about $35 per infant screened. That's less than $15 million to test every baby born in Canada last year. Measured on a per case identified basis, it costs much less than a number of other existing newborn tests. The advantages to identifying hearing loss early and implementing early intervention are clear: infants with hearing loss who are so identified by the age of six months perform 20 to 40 percentile points better on school-related measures than do those who are identified at a later age. Those who are identified by six months of age also end up with much better language scores than do those who are identified later, an advantage that holds true even when controlling for a bevy of other unusual predictive factors. When action is taken early, children with hearing disorders need not suffer unduly.
The United States already screens more than 95% of infants. Canada should follow this lead and implement a universal newborn hearing screening program. Such a program should aim to have all newborns, not just those deemed high risk, screened in the first month of life, with any necessary diagnostic testing being completed by three months and necessary intervention beginning no later than six months of age. Current Canadian practice for newborn hearing screening is inconsistent. There is no coordinated national approach to this issue, and in most cases there is no dedicated funding for newborn hearing screening.
No province has legislated requirements that infants be tested. Some, such as Ontario and New Brunswick, have offered newborn hearing screening; however, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, and Alberta have no universal program. A coordinated national approach will ensure that all babies born in Canada have equal access to hearing screening that can identify hearing difficulties at an age when they are most easily managed.
Thank you.