Congenital bilateral hearing loss is seen in 1-6 of every 1000 infants, establishing it as the most of commonly occurring birth defect. Normal hearing in early infancy is essential for speech, language, and social and emotional development of human beings. The usual age at diagnosis of hearing loss is at least 18-30 months (or even later in cases of less severe hearing loss) when there are no screening programs in use. This affects the development of language and speech of the child and later success in school performance. Therefore, to ensure a child's optimal care and development, hearing screening should be done. There was a long-standing belief that it was essential to do a newborn hearing screening only for those infants at risk of hearing loss. Today however, in Turkey and throughout the world, audiologists and other professionals recommend the screening for all newborns, with or without risk. The newborn hearing screening program is common now in Turkey as well and efforts are underway to make its practice more widespread.

Keywords: yenidoğan, işitme kaybı, işitme taraması, newborn, hearing loss, hearing screening.