Spring is full of vitality and everything is recovering. On the occasion of the 17th National Ear Care Day and the 4th International Ear Care Day on March 3, the development of otology in the past ten years has been rapid, especially in children’s hearing screening and genetic screening, and cochlear implantation has been more comprehensively popularized. The development of otology in the past decade has been rapid, especially in children’s hearing screening and genetic screening, and cochlear implantation has been popularized. However, the large number of clinical cases of children with hearing loss due to various reasons still reminds us that we must continue to educate the public about the science, so that we can prevent the disease before it occurs, and detect and treat the disease as early as possible. In order to respond to the theme of this year’s Ear Care Day, “Concern for Children’s Hearing Health”, I have found two representative cases that I have written before (2008 Ear Care Day), and once again supplemented and improved them, and released them with the help of the new media, in order to arouse the attention of the whole society to children’s hearing impairment. 1. Baby, why are you always so well-behaved 34-year-old Ms. Sun was blessed with a son, and she and her lover were immersed in the joy of becoming parents for the first time. 5-month-old son has always been very well-behaved, and he eats well and sleeps well every day. Although two months premature, but now chubby, a look at the future is a strong boy. One day, Ms. Sun accidentally dropped the glass to the ground, “pop” broke, she instinctively looked at the baby lying in the cot, only to see him looking at the cot hanging above the toys, it seems that this disturbing noise did not affect his interest. Ms. Sun is a little puzzled, quickly called her lover, the two behind the baby called loudly, and is clapping and ringing the bell, but the baby’s response always let them down. Anxious parents immediately took the baby to the hospital for examination, and found that the baby suffered from severe sensorineural deafness, although the cause of the disease is still unclear, but the doctor recommended wearing a hearing aid first. Young mothers should pay attention to the auditory development of their infants. Once it is found that the infant does not respond to the surrounding sounds and cannot turn his/her head accurately towards the sound source, he/she should go to the hospital for checkups so that early diagnosis and treatment can be made and relevant measures can be taken. Generally speaking, only conductive deafness has the possibility of restoring some or all of the hearing through medication and surgical treatment, while several other types of deafness require hearing and speech rehabilitation through the wearing of hearing aids and hearing and speech training. The earlier a child’s deafness is detected, the better. Early detection allows for early hearing aid wear and early hearing and speech training, which is often referred to as the “Three Early Principles” of rehabilitation for deaf children. Generally speaking, one of the following five conditions, is a high-risk hearing, speech disability: A, birth weight of less than 3 kilograms; B, the ear has deformities; C, hereditary deafness in the family or parents are close relatives; D, the mother has suffered from sexually transmitted diseases, syphilis, or in the early stages of pregnancy has suffered from rubella, herpes simplex, used ototoxic drugs; E, the birth of a bad luck, difficult birth asphyxia. Before going to the hospital, the mother should also carefully recall all the problems related to her child’s deafness. For example: whether there is a deaf person in the family; whether the child was sick when she was pregnant; whether the child was born with a serious illness; whether she used ototoxic drugs, such as gentamicin and streptomycin, when she was sick. In addition, one should bring along medical records of previous visits to the doctor, especially those related to deafness, for the doctor’s reference. If hearing impairment is detected, one should go to the hospital for audiological and imaging examinations to firstly confirm the diagnosis of the disease, and then medication, hearing aid fitting or cochlear implantation should be carried out according to the condition. Children with hearing aids or cochlear implants who are unable to speak before treatment must receive hearing and language rehabilitation training at a professional rehabilitation institution for deaf children, which is often referred to as “speech training”. Surprisingly, Ms. Sun’s baby with a hearing aid became restless and began to turn his head to look for his mother’s call. The doctor told Ms. Sun that although her child could hear, she still needed to keep observing and adjusting the hearing aids, together with regular language training, in order for her child to return to the wonderful world of sound, receive the same education as normal children, and have a healthy life. Although having a deaf child at home can be very hard, in-depth communication with the child will often bring unexpected gains. 2, children careless is a “disease” 10-year-old Lele lively and lovely, is the jewel of his parents. Recently, the teacher found that Lele was always absent-minded in class and his academic performance had dropped. The attentive teacher asked Lele’s mom to visit her home to see if something had happened at home to affect her child’s state. After talking with the teacher, the mom was puzzled. Everything was fine at home. After careful recollection, Lele seems to be a bit out of sorts lately. It seems that since the last time he had a cold, he always had a runny nose for a while, and one day he even said that his ears hurt, but then the runny nose stopped, so his mom was relieved. But since then, Lele seems to be a bit careless, always ignoring her parents’ words, watching TV with the sound turned up high, and Lele’s mom was once angry with her daughter for this reason, which made the relationship between mother and daughter tense for a while. Is there something wrong with Lele’s hearing? After the doctor’s detailed questioning and careful examination, Lele suffered from secretory otitis media, fluid in the middle ear, and hearing loss. The doctor said that children’s hearing loss is sometimes very insidious, and a cold may leave a hidden problem in the future. Because there is a small tube in the back of the nasal cavity called the Eustachian tube, which leads to the middle ear, when normal, this small tube will open with the swallowing action, so that the middle ear cavity and the external pressure balance. After a cold, this small tube is swollen and blocked, and cannot balance the pressure inside and outside of the middle ear, so that the middle ear forms a negative pressure, seeping out fluid, which affects the hearing. If left untreated for a long period of time, the fluid in the middle ear will gradually become sticky, causing the three delicate auditory ossicles in the middle ear to be firmly stuck and unable to conduct sound. This is clinically known as “glue ear”. Secretory otitis media is the most common cause of hearing loss in children. Because children are often unable to accurately describe the changes in their condition, especially when the disease develops in one ear, it is easy for parents to overlook it, resulting in the formation of an incurable “glue ear”. Therefore, it is important for families to seek help when they notice children scratching their ears, being irritable, and waking up easily; children who are absentminded, have behavioral changes, don’t respond to normal conversations, or watch TV with the sound turned up loud; and school-age children who have poor academic performance, poor balance, and delayed speech development. After a period of medication and local treatment, Lele’s hearing improved, but there was still effusion, and then a tympanic tube was placed, and after six months Lele was back to her old lively self. Addendum: In February 2009, the Ministry of Health promulgated the Administrative Measures for Newborn Disease Screening, which made newborn hearing screening a statutory disease of newborn screening, and since then, standardized hearing screening has been widely carried out across the country to screen children with hearing impairment earlier. In the past five years, the vigorous development of screening and diagnostic counseling for deafness genes has also led to the advancement of the diagnosis and intervention of some deafness diseases to the prenatal stage or even before embryo implantation. At the same time, some of the late-onset genetically related deafness has also been detected, diagnosed and intervened early. In some developed provinces, hearing screening for school-age children has also been put into practice. In July 2009, the State launched the “National Rescue Rehabilitation Program for Poor Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants/Hearing Aids,” investing heavily in free cochlear implants and post-operative rehabilitation funds for selected deaf children aged 1-5 years, as well as the “Seven Colors Children’s Relief Program” for hearing impaired children from all walks of life. There are also the “Colorful Dream Action Plan”, “Hearing Reconstruction Cochlear Implant Donation Program”, and “Domestic Cochlear Implant Funding Program”, all of which help severely hearing impaired children return to the world of sound. Sound is part of the world. Sound is a part of the world, and listening is everywhere, so let’s work together as a society to let children enjoy the charm of sound, and hear more clearly, more pleasantly, and for a longer period of time.