Listen and Learn:

In the United States for every 1,000 children born, 3 will have hearing loss and 40% of those children will be deaf.

According to the World Health Institute, deafness is America’s leading birth defect. Since FHSR was founded in 1958 we have been committed to providing the best care and support necessary to children with hearing loss and their families.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association states that the number of Americans living with a hearing loss has doubled in the past 30 years. More than 31 million Americans had hearing loss in 2004. There are 24.1 million individuals with a hearing loss who do not own a hearing aid device. About 60,000 cochlear implants have been implemented in the past 20 years—about one half in adults and one half in children.

One of the fastest growing populations with hearing loss is teenagers. Research shows that one in five teens in the United States has a hearing loss due to high-volume sounds in daily life such as headphones emitting loud music and excessive traffic noise.

The CDC reports that each year more than 12,000 babies are born with a hearing loss in the United States; often the cause is unknown. According to the World Health Institute, deafness is America’s leading birth defect.