Testing Hearing in Children

Evaluating Children
Appalachian Audiology can test newborns as young as a few hours old using a diagnostic test called Otoacoustic emissions.

Hearing test procedures for children vary, based on the age, the reason for the visit, and sometimes the willingness of the child to be tested.

Two types of otoacoustic emission testing are available at Appalachian Audiology:  Distortion Product and Transient Evoked otoacoustic emissions.  Both tests capitalize on the discovery that a normal cochlea, the hearing organ in the inner ear, will generate a sound in response to a sound, and the generated sound can be recorded at every pitch with normal hearing sensitivity present.

This takes a quiet room and a quiet patient.

Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA) is a test used in the sound booth with the child seated on the parent's lap.  When an interesting sound is presented thru a speaker or an earphone, the child will turn her/his head to the sound and is rewarded with an animated toy that lights up in a box. This is a good test for babies aged 6 months to 18 months.  Normal hearing babies will consistently turn to sounds as soft as 0-15dB.  This enables the audiologist to test each ear at many pitches.

Older babies and toddlers who bore easily with VRA may respond to play audiometry.  Depending on the motor skills, a baby is taught to respond with a toy each time she/he hears a sound.  They think this is a lot more fun!

Tests of the middle ear are quick. A tympanogram will tell if the eardrum is moving back and forth correctly, if there is a hole or perforation in the ear drum, and if there is fluid in the middle ear.  Abnormal results usually indicate a conductive hearing loss in that ear. Sometimes, the abnormal results point to a problem with the movement of the ossicles, the three tiny bones In the middle ear.

At Appalachian Audiology, the child is never separated from the parent.


Should I See an Audiologist?

Many times hearing loss goes undetected for years before being diagnosed and properly treated.

You can take a short hearing self-test and see if you currently experience any conditions that are indications of hearing loss.

If you are experiencing any hearing loss have your hearing tested by an ASHA certified audiologist.