[Studies on screening for hard-of-hearing children by questionnaire. 1. Screening of 1-year-6-month-old children in conjunction with the physical examination of the Ministry of Health and Welfare].

Screening for hard-of-hearing children by questionnaire was conducted along with the physical examination of 1-year-6-month-old children performed under the auspices of the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare. The questionnaire was given to 1, 011 parents and guardians (mostly mothers), of whom about 70% responded.The response rate to individual questions was examined. Most of the questions concerned the reactions to sound and the developement of hearing and speech. The frequency of “I don't know” as a response to these questions was very low and more than 90% of the respondents replied “yes” or “no” to questions was 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 and 18, which dealt with observations on reactions to sounds, and questions 19-21 and 23, which dealt with speech development and language comprehension.Past methods of screening for hard-of-hearing children were introduced and compared with the present method. The applicability of the present method to screening was discussed.