Like 80 babies born in Hawaii every year, Willow Badgley has a hearing deficiency.

After failing the hearing test administered to all infants at birth and failing another a month later, Willow was fitted with hearing aids at 4 months old.

Now 22 months old, Willow functions like any other toddler, asking for more at the dinner table and running over when her mother beckons.

"There’s an urgency to provide sound and stimulation for the brain. If brain cells associated with hearing are not stimulated, the brain reorganizes itself," said Susan LaFountaine, director of rehabilitation services at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, where Willow receives care.

LaFountaine said that there’s only a small window of time during a baby’s brain development when important, meaningful auditory neural connections can be made. During this period the baby’s brain must be consistently exposed to meaningful sounds for auditory neural pathways to develop. Because of this, babies with severe hearing loss, like Willow, should be fitted with hearing aids at no later than 6 months of age.

Willow is one of the eight children who have been helped by Kapiolani’s Pediatric Audiology Loaner Program since the program started in March. The program is funded through a $40,000 grant from the Joseph & Vera Long Foundation and targets children who might not be able to afford the equipment.

Willow’s mother, Patricia Badgley, a special-education teacher, is grateful for the financial assistance.

Families pay a $250 feeand are loaned hearing aids and frequency modulating (FM) systems. The devices are reused and reprogrammed, and new ear molds are made for each child. Financial assistance is available for qualifying families.

"We need two hearing aids and two transmitters and receivers. (The FM system) helps her discriminate speech sounds, reduces background noises and homes in to the person who is speaking to her," Patricia Badgley said.

Pediatric hearing aids can range in price from $1,000 to $4,000 per aid. And growing children may need to be fitted with new molds every few months.

If families delay fitting a child with hearing aids, it could have an irreversible impact on a baby’s ability to learn normal speech and language, LaFountaine added. "If babies are fitted early on, you shouldn’t be able to tell they had a hearing problem."

———

For more information on the Pediatric Audiology Loaner Program, call 983-8690.