Around 1-2 out of 1000 children are born with a hearing impairment. Depending on the severity, this can have an unfavourable effect on the child's further development, as only those who can hear properly can learn to speak properly. It is therefore important to recognise and treat the hearing impairment as early as possible. For our Bavarian children, hearing screening is supported nationwide by the integration of the screening centre at the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) with the structures already proven in metabolic screening to ensure process quality. The medium-term goal is to create structures that will enable quality-assured and nationwide newborn hearing screening in Baden Württemberg in the long term. According to the guideline, the newborn hearing screening examinations are documented in the yellow examination booklet.

If you suspect that your child is not hearing well, a sound hearing diagnosis forms the basis for early help. This is already possible in the first few days after birth. We then initiate hearing aid fittings if necessary and carry out their checks as part of a hearing aid consultation for children, arrange and initiate hearing-language education and are happy to advise you on kindergarten and school issues. We are also happy to inform and advise you about technical aids (cochlear implants, bone-anchored and partially or fully implantable hearing aids) in our hearing and CI consultation hours.

Deaf children and deafened adults are fitted with an electronic inner ear prosthesis (cochlear implant) at the HZU. An electronic hearing aid is implanted in the inner ear to stimulate the auditory nerve. Acoustic signals processed by a speech processor are transmitted through the skin to the electrodes, creating auditory impressions. Our team will carry out the necessary preliminary examinations and guide you through the decision-making process. After the operation, we will accompany you or your child on the long journey of "learning to hear".

In contrast to disorders of the peripheral auditory system, auditory processing and perception disorders are clinical pictures that have not yet been uniformly defined. They are characterised in everyday life by abnormalities in the areas of

• Acoustic attention
• Acoustic differentiation ability in noise
• signal processing in both ears
• directional hearing
• sound discrimination
• auditory memory
• Sound analysis/synthesis
• Integration of auditory perception functions

The "Ulm examination concept" we have put together is based on various tests from the fields of paediatric audiology, speech therapy/speech therapy education, neuropsychology and developmental psychology for an overall examination programme. The S1 guideline of the German Society for Phoniatrics and Paediatric Audiology (DGPP) on "Auditory Processing and Perception Disorders" can be found here (264 KB)

We offer the examination of auditory processing and perception disorders from the age of 5. However, individual areas, such as auditory attention or phonological awareness, are already included in the general diagnosis of a language development disorder. In addition to clarifying a processing and perception disorder, precursor skills of reading and writing acquisition are also tested in the case of school performance weaknesses in the area of reading and writing, including phonological awareness, for example. If necessary, a cognitive development test or a reading and spelling diagnosis is also carried out.