Testing a Child’s Hearing

Testing children requires specific equipment, setup and training which can all be found at Diagnostic Audiology Services. The type of tests used is dependant on the child’s age in years or their developmental level. These two factors will then further determine the testing time.

The test varies from objective tests that does not need any response from the baby or child to test where games are used to obtain a child’s interest. The type of method used will vary from each child’s response to the audiologists and the environment.

One method of testing children between the ages of approximately 9 months to 2 1/2 years is called Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA). The child will be sitting on a parents’s lap or in a baby chair in the centre of the room. Speakers positioned both left and right of the child contain toys which can be animated by the tester. The child will be conditioned to respond to toys flashing every time a sound is presented.

For older children ( 2 1/2 years to 5 years) a play based approach is used if they are developmentally able to complete more complicated tasks. In this case the child will be conditioned to react with a specific response or task paired with a sound. As soon as the child then hears the sound, he or she should then complete the task.

There are two main objective tests that is used with uncooperative children. These two tests are Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry(BERA) as well as Otoacoustic Emmisions (OAE) test. A BERA is s test where physiological measurement is taken of the brainstem’s response to sound. It tests the integrity of the hearing system from the ear to the brainstem. An OAE measures the acoustic response produced by the inner ear thus providing information with regard to the integrity of the inner ear.

For these objective tests a sleeping baby or child will provide the most accurate results as a quite and still environment leads to the most accurate results possible. Reliable results can be used to predict the child’s hearing, determine the loss and if so the severity thereof as well as provide information with regard to the best intervention plan.

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